The private, nonprofit Allegheny Conference on Community Development says its "strategic focus is on creating a more competitive business climate and marketing the Pittsburgh region for investment and job creation."
And here we thought those Hollywood writers were on strike.
This is the same Allegheny Conference that, a decade ago, attempted to tax Southwestern Pennsylvania to prosperity through the Regional Renaissance Initiative. The defeated tax would have sucked nearly $1 billion out of the economy over seven years.
While saying it's now working to lower business taxes and regulations, it supports a 10 percent tax on all poured alcoholic drinks and a $2 daily rental car tax to bail out the Port Authority of Allegheny County. The broken mass-transit agency shouldn't get any proceeds until it is reformed, the conference says.
But raising taxes does not make a region more "competitive." It's a lousy "marketing" tool. It dissuades "investment." And it dampens "job creation."
The conference holds its annual meeting on Thursday. There will be cocktails, music and the usual self-laudatory comments. But this organization has spent more than $55 million over the past decade and, according to the region's economic indicators, has painfully little to show for it.
The Allegheny Conference once moved mountains. It now moves hors d'oeuvres around a plate. Donors can find better value.
