Wows & Scowls
Wow: The Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency reports that 264 employees – about 24 percent of those who were eligible – accepted a buyout offer. The state’s student-loan agency blames its dire financial straights on strained credit markets. But we suspect the bureaucracy got a bit bloated along the way, as well. Scowl: So far this year, the U.S. economy has lost 438,000 jobs, an average of 73,000 per month. May’s jobless rate of 5.5 percent was the biggest over-the-month increase in two decades. While the economy is elastic – it goes up and down – the current situation should be worrisome enough to warrant a new approach. The current one simply isn’t working.
Scowl: Automakers generally are in bad shape, particularly the domestic manufacturers, because $4-a-gallon gasoline has put the brakes on sales of high-profit (but low-mileage) pickup trucks and SUVs. But don’t the highly paid CEOs of those companies get paid handsomely to know where the market is going and to prepare accordingly? And if they guessed wrong, shouldn’t they be the first to be let go? Instead, we see plants closing, workers losing their jobs and talk about bankruptcy.
Scowl: A new legislative study says PennDOT takes too long to award contracts, companies that miss deadlines usually are not fined and the state can often pave roads more cheaply than private firms. All three of those findings should be high on the list of fixes for a state that goes begging for transportation dollars. The bigger question is, “Why is this the situation in the first place?”
Scowl: A reader sends us this item for consideration: Redstone Township is likely to apply for $10,000 in federal funds to build a T-ball field at Redstone Park. The goal of the Federal Enterprise Community program supplying those funds “is to get people out of poverty and improve their quality of life.” Even if local officials think a T-ball field is the best way to accomplish those goals, $10,000 sounds like a lot of money to spend.
Wow: Fay-Penn Economic Development President Mike Krajovic admits that a plan to acquire and develop the former Anchor Glass Container plant in South Connellsville is a risky venture, one that carried a potential $8.6 million price tag. It’s good to hear such an honest and frank appraisal, instead of some rosy prediction that glosses over or ignores harsh realities. We prefer to hear it straight up.