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The Publius Foundation Seeks New Student Fellow, Stipend Provided
The Publius Foundation seeks a Pittsburgh-area undergraduate to serve as our Energy and Environment Student Fellow. The student fellow will be required to write a weekly blog post of between 400 and 800 words with a special focus on issues related to Marcellus Shale. A stipend of $100 will be provided for the semester. Interested students should [...] -
Marcellus Shale News In Brief
Rendell Administration Leases Land to Natural Gas Companies in No-Bid Contracts The cash-strapped Rendell administration has leased nearly 150,000 acres of public forests and game lands to gas companies that paid $400 million to drill for natural gas. Some critics say Pennsylvania taxpayers lost out on more money when administration officials privately negotiated two of the deals, [...] -
Local News In Brief
Allegheny County in Violation of Home Rule Charter Under its Home Rule Charter, Allegheny County is obligated to “protect the taxpayers of Allegheny County by requiring that each County department, agency and function is subject to” review every four years. Each so-called “sunset review,” according to the county’s administrative code, examines each department’s programs and services [...] -
Proposed Drilling Ban an Assault on Pittsburgh Taxpayers, Property Owners
Pittsburgh Councilman Doug Shields is planning to announce legislation that would ban natural gas drilling in the city, a ban that Shields characterizes as asserting the city’s right to protect itself from a harmful industry, the Post-Gazette reported. Ignoring, for the moment, Shields’ unsupported fear that natural gas drilling is a threat to the city or [...] -
Onorato Reveals Plan to Illegally Extort Jobs from Marcellus Drillers
In a stunning development in the debate over Marcellus Shale exploration, Allegheny County Executive and Democratic gubernatorial nominee Dan Onorato suggested “he’d pressure natural gas drilling companies to hire Pennsylvania residents by threatening to withhold state drilling permits,” Scott Detrow of State House Sound Bites reported. Elaborating on this strategy, Onorato said, “I think all governors [...] -
Pension Crisis Continues to Inspire Bad Legislation
First, Mayor Ravenstahl proposed the student tuition tax, then he proposed the 2-cents per ounce soda tax and then City Council raised parking ticket fees, all in the name of restoring the city’s pension fund to solvency. Now, with the pension fund still woefully underfunded, the pension crisis is being used to justify another bad [...] -
State Bill Emulates Obamacare By Targeting Tanning
Some Pittsburghers felt the first impact of Obamacare last Thursday when the health care law’s 10 percent tax on indoor tanning went into effect nationally. Owners of local tanning businesses and their customers were clearly displeased with the new tax and made their displeasure obvious in a number of local news stories around the region. But [...] -
Film Tax Credit A Loss For All Involved
Occasionally nicknamed “Hollywood on the Mon,” Pittsburgh is the site of various film and television productions every year, the presence of which serve as a curiosity to residents and give local papers a chance to publish photos of national celebrities. Indeed, Pittsburgh’s role as the filming location for a number of classic movies goes back [...] -
Interests of Students, Taxpayers At Odds With Teachers’ Unions
The 2009 merger of Monaca and Center Area School Districts into Central Valley — about 40 minutes north of Pittsburgh in Beaver County — promised to provide students with a more comprehensive education and lower costs for area taxpayers as the new district streamlined staff, gained purchasing power and increased enrollment. Central Valley began operating [...] -
Entrepreneurship Lags in PA, More State Involvement Not the Answer
Sunday’s Post-Gazette included an article (“Entrepreneurs may feel pinch with aid cuts”) that started on an interesting note, pointing out the fact that, nationally, the incorporation of new businesses reached a 14-year high during the recession but that Pennsylvania created the third fewest new businesses during this national boom. Regrettably, what could have been an incisive [...]