Columnist: West Mifflin not friendly to Kennywood

Brian, if you know anyone selling a large Victorian in Squi'll for a reasonable price, let me know.

As someone with no children, I choose to live in the city. Am I paying more in obvious taxes? You bet. But my commute is 10 minutes, tops, with no tolls, little gas use, and the ability to leave work and go see a show or a Pens game (sadly, not this year on that one) without even considering "gee, I might get home late".

Works for me.

The problem with these "occupational taxes" is, of course, that it's a fixed tax. Not even a flat (fixed percentage) tax, but a dead fixed tax. You work in West Mifflin for two weeks, you pay the same occupational tax as someone who works there 12 months out of the year. There are plenty of other businesses in West Mifflin that pay these taxes as well, from Century III Mall on down, but Kennywood's seasonal employees are a great example of the "length of employment is not a factor" aspect of this particular type of tax.

Here's an idea: bankrupt the township. If Kennywood announced that they weren't going to open due to this tax, you'd probably see it repealed (or at least lessened) real quick. Either that or, most likely, the township would go bankrupt. When that happens, politicians don't last. The only problem with this idea: would Kennywood be able to survive a season off?

They may not be as big of a giant as CP who got the parking tax repealed, but West Mifflin would still be looking at around $1 million in tax revenue that would be lost (if not more.. I don't know exact numbers other than the half million increase mentioned in that article)

Another idea on the occupational tax: Instead of taking $52 out of the first paycheck, take $10 out of the first one, and then $1/wk up to a maximum of $42. That way they still get their OPT hike, the $10 from before is still taken from everyone, and it's not as unforgiving on the seasonals.

Who in the hell would visit west mifflin without Kennywood?

They need to think about where there finances really come from.

Chuck

Yeah, close up the park to spite the municipality. Great business plan.

Kennywood is not the only business in West Mifflin. There are other major businesses within the borough (Bettis Research Plant, USX Irvin Works, Bombardier, Century III Mall, etc.) If the park were to close (God forbid!), West Mifflin would just shift the tax burden onto the other businesses and residents. I think it's really unfair how Kennywood's being overtaxed. There has to be a better, more equitable way. With all the new development in West Mifflin, I just don't understand council's reasoning, especially with the borough pay increases being 'subsidized' by the park. The amusement tax is one thing, but the "amusement device" tax is absolutely insane and should be made illegal by the state, especially since it seems geared toward just ONE business. Wake up West Mifflin before it's too late!!!!*** This post was edited by Brother Dave 1/15/2005 1:02:10 PM ***

Jeff said: I don't know much about the town, but looking around, I don't see how it's money being well spent.

That's the problem, it's not being spent to spruce up the community, it's being used to pay borough employees. Hey, if USAirways employees take pay cut after pay cut, and the city of Pittsburgh are laying off employees left and right and issuing pay cuts, what makes this little crappy borough think they are any better.

A lot of business and governments in the western PA area are hurting and unfortunately the tax payers are the ones left shouldering the burden. And they wonder why young people are leaving the region faster than ever.

We live in Beaver County also. Not only are the taxes cheaper, but housing is cheaper too. Had we built our house in Allegheny County, it would have cost us $20 - 30,000 more easily and the taxes would be $1 -1,500 more. Our house is now worth $25,000 more than we paid to build it 8 years ago and our taxes haven't really increased, there aren't many communities in Allegheny County that would happen in. And luckily, my husband doesn't have to commute to Allgheny County to work.

Jeff, I think a large part of what you're seeing around Kennywood though isn't really West Mifflin. I'm not sure how familiar you are with the area but Kennywood sort of sits in "Philly" to West Mifflin's "Pennsylvania" if you know what I mean. The communities that see the vast majority of the traffic from Kennywood (and probably should get a share of Kennywood's tax money to help maintain the roads) see nothing from Kennywood.

Just about the only place in Allegheny that *is* seeing that kind of increase loriu is Moon, right near Beaver. I think Moon/Hopewell/Robinson area is fast becoming the "new Cranberry" as most people are starting to realize that houses in Cranberry are ridiculously overpriced (why pay $300,000 for a monster house sitting on a postage stamp of land? I don't need to see my neighbor taking a crap when I've paid that much) and there's less traffic due to the higher capacity roads out this direction. My parents house has increased in value over $60,000 in the last 10 years. I can only hope I get that sort of return on my little piece of the earth!

I'll say it again, county consolidation. Sure it won't help alleviate the Butler and Beaver County issues but damn would it help out Allegheny!

Something that I don't see mentioned here is what the total tax burden on Kennywood compares to other businesses of similar size in other juridictions. That's really the sigificant thing.

I must admit that the occupation tax stinks for seasonal employees. Add this tax to income taxes, social security, and Medicare, and the new employee has to work about 2 days to break even. I wonder what they do if the employee quits after the first day. Send them a bill for taxes owed that exceed their gross pay?

The woes heard here about the Pit Metro Area are echoed throughout many of the older urban areas of the east and midwest/great lakes regions. I don't know about the specific laws of PA, but in Ohio there isn't any limit to a local government exceeding the county boundries (Columbus being the most notable example). Anyway the PA counties are so small it would see to me that the areas around the major PA cities should consolidate three or more counties to a metro government.

On a side note, if you have a large victorian in Squirrel Hill then i don't think you're to much worried about sending kids to private schools and paying property taxes. Unless of course the victorian is a dump. I can't understand why people don't see the value of living near where they work. You save on personal time, transportation expenses and paying multiple local income taxes (at least in Ohio). The other thing to think about with higher taxes in the older cities and suburbs is that the services should be far greater with the higher income taxes (ie garbage removal, city parks and recreation facilities, better fire and police units etc).

This is exactly why I took myself, and my business, out of PA. (More notably, Pittsburgh) It irks me to no end that people there are being taxed to death, in a place where wages are low, and the local governments are to blame 100%. Though it would NEVER happen, I'd just love to see Kennywood pick up and move.

This message was posted in Fort Lauderdale, a place where there are NO wage taxes in the City, or State!

Try living in Huntington, WV. We are in a worse situation than Pitt or West Mifflin.

I agree that taxing people to death is no way to run things. I eat a bowful every year. I hope Kennywood finds a way to repeal this tax. But, I'm no tax expert.

Don't even get me started on government in Pennsylvania. Too late, you did.

Pennsylvania has over 2,500 individual municipalities when you count all the cities, boroughs and townships. That number is greater by far than any other state. That doesn't include other "taxing" powers such as counties (67), school districts (over 500 of them), municipal authorities, etc. In other words, PA has more than its share of folks with their hands out, expecting the GP to support them.

And when it comes to taxation, PA has to be the leader in figuring out ways to stick their hands in your pockets. (Yay, we're #1!) Don't know if there's an old thread for this or not in here, but several years ago, the school district where Knoebel's is located wanted to tax all the permanent rides (i.e., coasters) and buildings there as individual real estate entities, with separate assessments and tax bills for each. (My response to that was get the lawyers who thought of it, along with the school district and township employees down to the park and let them clean the toilets with toothbrushes and pick up the trash with a plastic fork-- then they can have their money. But that's just my idea.)

As far as consolidating, good luck. People might be different out in the Pgh area, but I doubt it. The county where I live has had no luck doing that, even though 1/3 (like 22 out of 66) of the municipalities have less than 1000 residents. One place they tried, it fell through because they couldn't agree on what the new municipality would be named. Most other little townships here are against it because they are afraid of losing their "uniqueness and individuality" and oh yes, "we have our pride." Of course they're not too proud to rely on the state or another town to provide all their services for them because they have absolutely no tax base. Most couldn't even afford to post a sign at the either end of town so you knew were the hell you were. But hey, they're proud of who they are.

The gist of all this is you have a thick-headed population ruled over by far too many greedy bloated politicians who view their little burgh as their own private fiefdom. The $52 occupational tax was originally passed by the legislature as an emergency way for Pittsburgh to collect money for services from people who worked in, but didn't live in, the city. The legislation was obviously written with a loophole that would allow any other municipality to enact such a tax if they thought it was necessary. Now, you tell me what town is not going to think a captive source of income is not going to be "necessary?"

No matter what you think about the newspaper's political leanings, from what the borough manager said, the half million plus to be collected from Kennywood will be used for employee pay raises. How many people does West Mifflin employ? Even if you're talking 50 employees, which is huge for any borough, that's over 10K a person. And that's this year, what about next year? Or the next contract? Ask me about my ideas for government employee and teachers unions. (sorry if I tick anyone off with that comment-- no, actually I'm not.)

Re: the cost of commuting. I may be wrong, but I thought the 37.5 cents a mile was the average cost of OWNING a car, not running one. That includes the actual car payments plus insurance, registration, plus all the maintenance, all averaged out over the life of a car. And all that is spread out for everyone who owns a car. Obviously, the costs aren't going to be the same for everyone in every locality. This came up during a discussion a few years ago in our local paper talking about the large percentage of residents who commute to other counties for work.

OK, I'm getting off my soapbox now. Civics lesson is over. Carry on.