Rendell should turn USAirways down .
By Jack Markowitz
FOR THE TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Wednesday, November 8, 2006
The election is over. For a little while no politician has to pander. Gov. Ed Rendell should seize this opportunity.
He should declare that Pennsylvania will give no public subsidy to US Airways to build a flight operations control center here.
Then he should get on the phone to the governors of Arizona and North Carolina. And urge them, governor to governor, to take the same stand: that is, send US Airways away with a polite no. Because enough is enough. States have to quit bidding against each other for industry using taxpayers' money.
US Airways is a free enterprise. It should build and pay for its own flight operations center -- and would without politicians dangling "incentives." In this case no small change is involved: some $25 million. The US Airways design would put 400 to 600 people to work. So $25 million divvies up to $41,000 to $65,000 per job. Sounds nuts, doesn't it?
But let's be fair. And here's the cruel part. US Airways already employs 450 workers at an existing, apparently obsolete, control center near Pittsburgh International Airport. Plus 175 others at a similar location near Phoenix. One group will lose their livelihoods if the airline picks the other site; or both if it opts for a third, Charlotte, N.C. Hence the sleazy bidding war. Three states that ought to know better are ready to throw public money at an airline whose survival, after all, hinges on something else and wholly within its own control: getting the doggone airplanes and baggage where they're supposed to go on time.
There's a further bizarre detail. Phoenix claims that its $25.3 million in "incentives" include $16.2 million in so-called New Market Tax Credits. It seems there's a federal program to steer investment toward "underserved" communities. Phoenix, one of the country's fastest-growing sun spots, is underserved? Who'd have thought it?
No doubt it would take serious grit for Rendell to break the cycle in the increasingly absurd war between the states for "job creation." But the election's over. He can't run for governor again anyway. He can practice honest economics now.
And that would involve promoting true job creation. By working to cut the size and cost of the state Legislature and bureaucracy. By cutting taxes. And discouraging the militancy of organized labor (which is the real hole-card that Arizona and the Carolinas hold against Pennsylvania). And trying to keep the coming dominance of gambling interests in state politics from wreaking too much ruin on families, communities and competing business.
As to US Airways operations control center workers, if a taxpayer subsidy isn't forthcoming, their marching orders are clear: to be the best control center workers in the country. So US Airways would surely build here, or else the management knows not what it does.
Retired business editor Jack Markowitz writes Sundays and Wednesdays. E-mail him at jmarkowitz@tribweb.com.
By Jack Markowitz
FOR THE TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Wednesday, November 8, 2006
The election is over. For a little while no politician has to pander. Gov. Ed Rendell should seize this opportunity.
He should declare that Pennsylvania will give no public subsidy to US Airways to build a flight operations control center here.
Then he should get on the phone to the governors of Arizona and North Carolina. And urge them, governor to governor, to take the same stand: that is, send US Airways away with a polite no. Because enough is enough. States have to quit bidding against each other for industry using taxpayers' money.
US Airways is a free enterprise. It should build and pay for its own flight operations center -- and would without politicians dangling "incentives." In this case no small change is involved: some $25 million. The US Airways design would put 400 to 600 people to work. So $25 million divvies up to $41,000 to $65,000 per job. Sounds nuts, doesn't it?
But let's be fair. And here's the cruel part. US Airways already employs 450 workers at an existing, apparently obsolete, control center near Pittsburgh International Airport. Plus 175 others at a similar location near Phoenix. One group will lose their livelihoods if the airline picks the other site; or both if it opts for a third, Charlotte, N.C. Hence the sleazy bidding war. Three states that ought to know better are ready to throw public money at an airline whose survival, after all, hinges on something else and wholly within its own control: getting the doggone airplanes and baggage where they're supposed to go on time.
There's a further bizarre detail. Phoenix claims that its $25.3 million in "incentives" include $16.2 million in so-called New Market Tax Credits. It seems there's a federal program to steer investment toward "underserved" communities. Phoenix, one of the country's fastest-growing sun spots, is underserved? Who'd have thought it?
No doubt it would take serious grit for Rendell to break the cycle in the increasingly absurd war between the states for "job creation." But the election's over. He can't run for governor again anyway. He can practice honest economics now.
And that would involve promoting true job creation. By working to cut the size and cost of the state Legislature and bureaucracy. By cutting taxes. And discouraging the militancy of organized labor (which is the real hole-card that Arizona and the Carolinas hold against Pennsylvania). And trying to keep the coming dominance of gambling interests in state politics from wreaking too much ruin on families, communities and competing business.
As to US Airways operations control center workers, if a taxpayer subsidy isn't forthcoming, their marching orders are clear: to be the best control center workers in the country. So US Airways would surely build here, or else the management knows not what it does.
Retired business editor Jack Markowitz writes Sundays and Wednesdays. E-mail him at jmarkowitz@tribweb.com.
