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Colin McNickle
Colin McNickle
Allegheny Institute
https://www.patownhall.com/columnists/colin-mcnickle/
Columnists Articles
Columnist Archives
2023
Pittsburgh Public Schools Must Confront Budget Realities
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The (Still) High Cost of Pittsburgh Regional Transit Bus Service
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Four Must Dos for the Next Allegheny County Executive
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Weak Jobs & PIT Numbers Go Hand in Hand
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PA Taxpayers Being Railroaded Again
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The Right-to-Work Difference in Jobs Recovery
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Pennsylvania Must Start Living Within Its Means
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Advice for the Next Allegheny County Executive
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The Trouble Behind PIT’s Passenger Numbers
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Darkness Without Dawn for Pittsburgh’s Office Vacancy Rate?
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The Lose-Lose Situation of a $15 Pennsylvania Minimum Wage
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Benefits, Challenges in Corporate Net Income Tax Cut
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High Costs, Poor Results: The Troubling Pittsburgh Public Schools Story
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The Wrong Kind of ‘Growth’ for Pittsburgh
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Reduce Costs Before Adding New Mass Transit Taxes
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Pittsburgh International’s Misleading Stats, Rose-Colored Glasses
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The Solid Case for Allegheny County Reassessment
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Three Proposals to Fix Pennsylvania’s School Funding Mess
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Pittsburgh Downtown Office Vacancy Rate Struggling
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Issues in the Allegheny County Executive Race
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Points of Order on Gainey’s Tax-Exempt Review
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New Steps To Retiring Turnpike Debt
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Pittsburgh Public Schools Must Get On With Right-Sizing
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How to Effect Real Change in Pennsylvania’s Failing High Schools
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2022
Cheerleading Aside, Pittsburgh International’s Struggles Deepen
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Pittsburgh International’s Faltering Gas Well Production
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Pittsburgh Regional Transit Must Right-size
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Don’t Allow ‘Jock Tax’ Ruling to Strap Pittsburgh
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How to Grow Pittsburgh International’s British Airlines Flights
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Pittsburgh Regional Transit Must Economize or See Funding Cut
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Pittsburgh’s Government Induced Economic Funk
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Cutting Pennsylvania’s Corporate Net Income Tax: A Good Start
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The Cause of ‘The Pittsburgh Pause’
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Pittsburgh International’s Post Pandemic Passenger Recovery Falters
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State, Counties Lack Will to Restore Assessment Fairness
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Gaming in PA is Robust, But Issues Lie in Wait
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Pennsylvania’s Private Jobs Conundrum
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School ‘Rescue’ Dollars Boomerang
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Hurdles Abound for Pittsburgh International Passenger Growth
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The High Cost of Light Rail in Pittsburgh
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What Pittsburgh MSA Population Malaise Portends
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Unionization Hinders Jobs Recovery
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Serious Public Educations Questions for Pennsylvania
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North Shore Connector at 10
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Keystone Exams: An Abject Failure
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Kill the ‘Presence’ Tax & Economize Pittsburgh’s Finances
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Challenges Ahead for Pittsburgh International
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Drastic Changes Key To Better Pittsburgh Job Growth
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A Fee Too Far for Allegheny County Hotels
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Are Pittsburgh’s Pension Changes Prudent?
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Insane Inaction on PA Transportation Mess
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A Deeper Dive into Pittsburgh International’s Latest Passenger Numbers
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2021
Advice for Pittsburgh’s New Mayor
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Allegheny County Demolition Fee Observations
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PASSHE Must Do More to Reform Itself
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Attendance Matters in Academic Performance
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Pittsburgh’s Weakest Schools Show Little Progress
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Questioning Pittsburgh’s American Rescue Plan Spending
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The Pittsburgh International Airport Conundrum
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Pay Your Own Way USGA
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Pittsburgh’s Static High Office Vacancy Rate
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A Dichotomous Jobs Recovers – And a Looming Wild Card
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PA Tax Collections Rebound: A Cautionary Tale
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Right-to-Work and the Post-Pandemic Jobs Recovery
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Port Authority of Allegheny County Must Reorder Its Disorderly Fiscal House
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Questions & Pitfalls: Emergency Public School Funding
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Gambling Revenue Rebounds – But at What Cost?
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The Right-to-Work Difference in Pandemic Jobs Recovery
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The Trouble with Pittsburgh International Airport
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Most Aquion Money Still Unrecovered
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Pratfalls & Pitfalls for PA Jobs Recovery
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A Pig of a Poor Public Policy
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Impact of Tolling Interstate Bridges
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Cold Job Comfort in Greater Pittsburgh
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The Evergreen Case Against Prevailing Wage Laws
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Trouble Ahead for Allegheny County Retirement System?
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The Wrong RX for Pennsylvania’s Post-Pandemic Recovery
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Troubles at Pittsburgh International Airport
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Port Authority Challenges Increase
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PA Turnpike Financial Struggles Continue
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Continuing Struggle of Pittsburgh Public Schools
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2020
The Daunting Task of Re-Shaping PASSHE
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The Continuing Case for Regular Property Reassessments
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Hiked Permit Fees Latest Shale Industry Hurdle
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Right-to-Work States’ Jobs Fare Better in Pandemic
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How Dire the Straits at Pittsburgh International?
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Allegheny County’s Sick Leave Proposal a Nonstarter
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Common Sense Pension Reforms Still Prudent
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A Good Time to Scuttle ‘Prevailing Wages’
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State System School Merger Faces Hurdles
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Public Debt for Private Entities in Pandemic Times
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Bird-Dogging Those CARES Act Dollars
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The Numbers & Unknowns: Covid-19 & PA Casinos
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Greater Pittsburgh’s Halting, Uneven Jobs Recovery
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Law of Diminishing Economic Returns
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Pittsburgh Region Air Quality Misrepresented
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Addressing PA’s ‘Lasting Economic Scars’
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In Pandemic Opportunity for Port Authority
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Allegheny County’s Coronavirus Revenue Challenge
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Holding Pittsburgh Water & Sewer Authority to Account
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Pittsburgh’s Road Out of the Coronavirus Downturn
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The Dandelion That is a City-County Merger
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Coronavirus Economic Damage Real, Enormous
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Pittsburgh’s Office Vacancy Canary
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Pittsburgh Mills TIF Comes Home To Roost
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British Airway’s Passenger Traffic at Pittsburgh International Falls Short of Projections
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Past Time for Pirates, Steelers, Penguins to Pay Their Own Pay
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Pennsylvania’s Gambling Dichotomy
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Problems Mount for State System of Higher Education
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Allegheny County’s Real Economic Performance
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Past Time to Fix Property Assessment/Appeals Mess in Allegheny County
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Pittsburgh By the Financial Numbers
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2019
Beef Up ‘Local Share’ Gambling Dollars Reporting
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Negative Job Growth Dogs Greater Pittsburgh
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Port Authority Transit’s Costly Bus Service
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New Day Ahead for Westmoreland Transit
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Pittsburgh Schools Not Ready for Prime Time
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Wolf Spins Tangled Overtime Web
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Auction Those Pittsburgh Property Holdings
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Just Say No to RGGI
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International Passenger Count Nosedives at Greater Pittsburgh International Airport
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The Rivers Casino at Ten
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Pittsburgh’s Anemic Labor Market
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Keeping an Eye on Police Regionalization
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Pittsburgh Public Schools: Attendance Matters
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An Early Look at PA’s Public Pension Problem
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Can PA’s Record Impact Fee Receipts be Sustained?
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Can PIT Afford This Terminal?
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Troubling Comparisons for Pittsburgh
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Budget Challenges for the Port Authority
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Nagging Nuggets in PA’s Revenue Stats
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Cost of Public Education: An Analysis
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The Penn Hills Predicament
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‘Statistical Malpractice’: The ALA’s Attack on Pittsburgh
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Reversing Greater Pittsburgh’s Population Decline
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The Wrong Way to Stimulate Demand at Pittsburgh International
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Hurdles for Pittsburgh Property Tax Relief
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Gaming Expansion in PA: Marginal Returns?
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Facts & Fallacies: British Airways Returns to PIT
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No Subsidies for Replacement Hill Grocery Store
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Disparities & Irrationalities in PA State School Funding
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Allegheny County’s ‘Charitable Purposes’ Review Fall Short
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Dubious Prescription: Wolf’s Teacher Pay Raise Plan
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The Pennsylvania Jobs Picture: Losing Ground
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Latest Pittsburgh Jobs Report Disappoints
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Peers Could Guide Port Authority Performance
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Fixing Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority: Necessary & Expensive
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Public Pension Reform Bows in PA
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Pittsburgh’s Education Dog Won’t Hunt
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2018
Will Allegheny County Airport Authority Continue Picking Winners and Losers?
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Time to Tighten Shale Gas Impact Fee Reporting Requirements
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Pittsburgh Sports Teams’ Weak Economic Defense
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Did Public Subsidies Kill Delta at PIT?
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Reject the ‘Children’s Fund’ Tax
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School District Consolidations Face Hurdles
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Questioning Those ‘Livability’ Rankings
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Overhauling PA’s Local Tax Regimen
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Tax Collections Up, But PA Economy Sluggish
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Inequities Loom in School Tax Shift Plan
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No More Tax Dollars for Stadiums
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Legislature, Governor Must Act on Reassessments
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A Woeful Tale of Airport Subsidies
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British Airways Subsidy is Misguided
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The Land Bank Question
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A Shale Severance Tax? Think Again (Again)
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PA Must Work Hard to Overcome Economic Doldrums
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School Funding Formula Deficiencies
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A Herring Most Red
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Eliminate PA’s Prevailing Wage Law
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Pittsburgh’s out-of-sync jobs numbers
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Pittsburgh’s Population Picture
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Lung Association Smears Pittsburgh — Again
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How to Fix PA’s State System Schools
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Taxing Bodies Win, Taxpayers Lose
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‘Inexcusably Costly’: Port Authority Bus Service
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Behind Pittsburgh Airport Passenger Data
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Are PA’s Gaming Dollars Well Spent?
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The Case for Regular Assessments
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PA Job Growth in Perspective
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High Cost of Port Authority Bus Service
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Reconciling Taxable Values, Millage Rates & Tax Collections
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PWSA, PUC & ‘Blame Shifting’
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Markets, Reforms & Pittsburgh’s Pensions
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‘Progressive’ Entrepreneurism’s Oxymoron
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Pittsburgh Sheds ‘Distressed City’ Status
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Counting ‘Growth’ at Pittsburgh International
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Broken Promises for Pittsburgh’s Students
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PA Gaming Slows, Questions Arise
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Demise of the ICA
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Wintry Renewal
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Difficult Road for Homestead Exclusion
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The Problem with PA’s Economy
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2017
City Cooperation Key to Fixing PWSA
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Pittsburgh’s Minimum Wage Obsession
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What Gaming Law ‘Fix’ Means
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A New Day at the ICA
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Improving Economy Means Higher Tax Collections
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PA’s Embarrassing Teacher Pay Gap
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Funding PA’s Public Schools
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‘Anemic’ Defines Greater Pittsburgh’s Economy
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Reforming Public School Funding
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Is $1.1 Billion Pittsburgh Airport Upgrade Justified?
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Report on PA State System Schools Falls Short
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PA’s Destructive Budget Machinations
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Severance Tax No Panacea for Budget Woes
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Unflattering Pattern for PA Economy
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Behind Shale Gas Impact Fee Slide
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Stadium Authority Extension Bad Public Policy
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Pesky Issues Dog Port Authority
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Hazards in School Loan Forgiveness Plan
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PA Senate’s Budget Farce
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Wolf Budget Wrong RX for PA
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2016
Here is Why We Should Ban Teacher Strikes in PA
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PA Must Fix Casino Problem
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