KOZ not needed
Three taxing bodies – Fayette County, Uniontown School District and Uniontown City Council – have been asked to authorize a Keystone Opportunity Zone (KOZ) for a downtown commercial property. Recall the actions of Fayette County commissioners seeking to free up already designated KOZ property zoned for manufacturing, located in the county industrial business park along Route 40. The state legislature redid the legislation to allow the county’s KOZ area to be redrawn, so businesses would locate in the park, but not in the KOZ. Officials admitted problems with including small businesses in a KOZ. The tax-free program wasn’t designed to encourage a bank, jewelry store or a caf’ to vacate one building and move across town into a building designated as a KOZ.
Commissioners have acknowledged the design of the KOZs on county-owned property to be for factories, not small-business incubators. They and the Uniontown officials should vote no on Gearing’s proposal to be included in this next round of KOZ designations.
Likewise, the commissioners should stop the abuse of the KOZ at the University Technology Park near Penn State Fayette Campus. Reportedly, plans are underway for “a Canonsburg company to build for student housing units.” (Planners OK land-development plan for new student housing, Herald-Standard, March 14.)
While the Fayette County Planning Commission may be obligated to approve building plans for already properly zoned areas, the commissioners have different binding obligations per their own signatures on the KOZ resolution they signed in 1999. At that time, the board specifically refused to sign on to any resolution that included opting into KOZ tax forgiveness for housing. It’s an unfair precedent to set in a county that recently completed a tax reassessment to make the county’s unfair system fair.
Delinda Young
Uniontown
Prison cuts are unwise
The governor’s budget proposal included closing two state prisons.The state is at 116 percent capacity. This figure does not count the state inmates in county jails, federal jails, the forensic centers, or the 1,400 on parole and 1,750 absconders. With these totals, the capacity raises to 126 percent, with Pittsburgh and Waynesburg remaining open.
Closing these two facilities raises the capacity to 134 percent. Even with Fayette due to open up in August, the capacity will be at 119 percent. These figures are as of the end of February 2003, and do not consider inmate population growth. In 1989, overcrowding contributed to a massive riot at Camp Hill. This was the most expensive uprising by inmates in Pennsylvania.
With the closing of Pittsburgh, the cost rises to county jails and sheriffs for transportation. Instead of a 40-minute turn around time for Allegheny County sheriffs, they will be looking at an approximate turn around time of three hours. Taxpayers will be paying this overtime. They have already paid $100 million for upgrades at Pittsburgh and are still paying for ongoing construction at Waynesburg.
The Department of Corrections has continuously cut security positions. The newest institution, Pine Grove, was built for juveniles sentenced as adults. The facility will now house maximum-security inmates alongside 16-year-old children. The DOC has an obligation to house offenders in a safe environment, and to protect the public. The closing of prisons does not meet those obligations.
John A. Miller
Indiana
The writer is a business agent for the Pennsylvania State Corrections Officers Association.