Pittsburgh Drink Tax

Allegheny County Drink Tax

Why This Is Bad

by: adam@pittsburghdrinktax.com

As many of us that live in Allegheny already know, as of December 4th, the County Council passed the 2008 budget which includes a 10% drink tax on all alcoholic drinks served at all bars within the borders of Allegheny county. The money taken in from this new tax, that goes into effect on January 1st, 2008, is supposed to go to help fund the Port Authority of Allegheny County. I am not going to go into all of the facts and figures explaining why this is a step in the wrong direction and will undoubtedly do nothing but allow the council, and County Executive Dan Onorato to continue to shovel money into the poorly run Port Authority, as this information can be found in the "Newsroom" section of www.StopDrinkTax.com.

I am writing this because of a piece of information I recently came across while researching the Port Authority, and this new tax that is being shoved down our throats. In my searching, I came across the performance audit of the Port Authority of Allegheny County, published on December 3rd, 2007 (the day before the council vote), by Jack Wagner, Auditor General of Pennsylvania. This report was sent to County Executive Dan Onorato, all members of the Allegheny County Council, and Stephen G. Bland, CEO of the Port Authority, among other people.

This performance audit was based on information collected from July 1st, 2002 to June 30th, 2006 with updated information through August 22nd, 2007. Within the report, the Auditor General goes into great detail describing the gross financial mis-management of the Port Authority (to the tune of no less than $20.2 million), that receives over 55% of its funding from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. He also mentions the lack of representation of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania on the nine member board of directors, all of whom are appointed by none other than County Executive Dan Onorato, the spear-head of the new tax meant to help resolve the fiscal calamity that his own appointees helped to create. You can read all about it for yourself here. I could be wrong, but I distinctly remember learning about a system of checks and balances in our government designed to keep morons like this from doing to us exactly what he has just done.

I must say that I was irritated by this issue before, but after finding this little nugget of truth, I have upgraded those feelings to royally pissed off. This drink tax was a direct result of poor management on the part of the Port Authority, which is a result of poor choices made in the office of Dan Onorato, who appoints the board of directors. But at least he, and the County Council are willing to take more money out of the pockets of the citizens of this county, rather than attempt to resolve these problems that have been laid at their feet in black and white, by the Auditor General.