EDITORIAL – Port Authority funding freeze necessary

It doesn’t look like we’ll see the end of Port Authority problems anytime soon.

Allegheny… It doesn’t look like we’ll see the end of Port Authority problems anytime soon.

Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato announced Monday that he will be withholding Port Authority funds until it reorganizes its labor costs. This position would hold even if the two new taxes he planned to finance the Port Authority – the drink tax and the tax on car rentals -are accepted.

We have stated, in previous editorials, that we do not support Onorato’s proposal to tax poured alcoholic drinks. While the tax on car rentals makes sense, another tax on alcohol is completely arbitrary because it has nothing to do with mass transit.

However, the issue at hand is not whether we agree with Onorato’s tax proposals or not. What is significant right now is that the Port Authority has proven that it is a bloated and irresponsible system, once and for all. For this reason, Onorato’s decision to freeze Port Authority funds is entirely justified.

In his signed executive order, Onorato made it official that he was going to withhold funds until the Port Authority’s union makes specific changes.

The contract of the union, Amalgamated Transit Union Local 85, is going to expire in June, according to the Post-Gazette, so a renegotiation is inevitable. Onorato wants the union to follow similar concessions as those put into practice for nonunion workers in March.

These included freezing salaries, increasing health care contributions, removing early retirement and terminating lifetime health care.

Onorato told the Post-Gazette that he hopes the Port Authority will “look [at the concessions] and come back with some recommendations. If they don’t restructure their costs, the Port Authority will be bankrupt in 18 months.”

As ominous as that sounds, we support Onorato’s efforts at getting the Port Authority to restructure before it receives any new funds. We also hope that the Port Authority will adhere to Onorato’s concessions. However, we think Onorato should be cautious in dealing with the union. The concessions may lead the union workers to strike, giving way to more problems not just for the transit system, but to bus riders as well.

This is a factor that Onorato should be prepared to address, and he should try not to promote cuts that could lead to a potential strike.

True, it would be unfortunate if people lost their jobs, but at the same time, it is necessary. The Port Authority desperately needs to make these major labor changes so that it can finally become an efficient and reliable system.

In fact, we have another suggestion that would help them achieve this goal: Put advertisements on all the buses. There is no reason to decorate the buses with cute slogans or pictures of flowers and bees, as some of them are decorated now – an action that probably cost the Port Authority a significant amount of money. Every bus should be a moving advertisement.

Then, perhaps, the Port Authority would not be so strapped for cash.