Mayor Ravenstahl is trying to rule by decree

Can a U.S. mayor rule by decree?  Well, not technically, but in Ravenstahl's case it's clearly being tried.

Pittsburgh City Paper reported this past summer that four members of the Parking Authority are acting under expired terms, with the fifth seat vacant. Appointment is the duty of the mayor, who instead showed a preference for letting board members stay, provided they never disagreed with him. Bill Peduto was one such naysayer when he sat on the Stadium Authority in 2008. He was removed.

But let's stick with the parking lots for now, which are as some are aware and others are not, neighborhood killing waiting zones for territory earmarked for later development. Sources anonymous and public have pointed to the old Salvatore Williams racket as the major culprit in this. Williams was identified as La Cosa Nostra in 1991 by the Pennsylvania Crime Commission. He plead guilty to conspiracy and conducting an illegal gambling business in July 1996, serving 13 years for a Hill District numbers racket while:

He has accumulated 67 parcels of land -- most of them in Uptown, where he has demolished a dozen buildings on Fifth Avenue since 1999, records show. He turned four of those 12 properties into parking lots, adding to the six he already owned. The rest have been paved or cleared and left vacant.

Williams's son (Tony) is now a key developer in the Hill District and Bluff (Uptown) continues, though putting an actual place to buy food in the Hill District seems to be more difficult than building a hockey arena. Tonya Payne, councilperson for Uptown and the Hill District, received campaign donations from Williams Real Estate in 2005. She recently lost her bid for reelection.

The Williams family, the city and the Urban Redevelopment Authority control well over 200 parcels in Uptown and the Lower Hill. Based on URA records, the city owns more than 150 parcels and the redevelopment authority nearly 50.--source

But that's just business as usual. Something to remind us all what city we live in before we look at  the boy in charge. Now that he's secured  the election, Luke's probably thinking very highly of himself. He's the mayor. People rise and fall with his appointment. His old ally Pat Ford on the URA and the Lamar billboard scandal didn't stop him from being re-elected.  The graft-riddled profiting from Pittsburgh's alleged redevelopment continues.

But Luke's acting up now, and he's defying people outside Pittsburgh who don't need him for favors. His brass balls rule-by-alienation method is the root of the tuition tax, which pits residents against college students in an old conflict with an even older ball: taxes. In the end, it won't be the tuition tax that takes down Ravenstahl, but this may be the first real crack. This is pure bravado, ego-fanning ghost armor from a petulant politico. The armor makes you brave and bold, but it won't stop the bullet you step in front of.

The first of those bullets may be the ICA (Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority), a state-appointed board has added themselves to the critics of Ravenstahl Tuition Tax. Unfortunately for the mayor, their opinion actually counts.

The state-picked Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority today unanimously rejected Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl's budget, saying that the inclusion of $16.2 million he hopes to get from a tuition tax doesn't comply with state law.--source

However, after a day of "strident" complaining by the Mayor before the ICA, he's resorting to a simpler method: pugnacious machining.

The tuition tax has the votes to win approval.

That was the message at a news conference this morning at which Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl stood with five city council members -- Ricky Burgess, Darlene Harris, Jim Motznik, Tonya Payne and Theresa Smith -- who support a 1 percent levy on post-secondary school tuition.--source

In other words: f*ck your "illegal". It'll pass, and that's all that matters. It is illegal, though. Make no mistake about that. On the 9th of November Ravenstahl introduced this tax, after it entered public dialogue during the mayoral election. No one seemed to notice then what City Controller Michael Lamb mentioned the next day:

"The fact that [Mr. Ravenstahl] actually came out yesterday and called this a tax is, I think, problematic," Mr. Lamb said. "I don't know that they have the authority to create a new tax like this."-- source

He also has the personal authority as City Controller to veto the damned budget.

The basis of this tax being legal comes from the state Act 511, the Local Tax Enabling Act, which allows them to tax "priveleges". Post-secondary education is considered a privilege now in the city that mere months ago was willing to enter lock-down to better tout its renaissance and eco-friendly modern appeal.

Another point of order respects the list of council members agreeing with this monstrous abuse of sense: Ricky Burgess, Darlene Harris, Jim Motznik, Tonya Payne and Theresa Smith.  Motznik and Payne are lame ducks, first of all. They'll not be aroudn for the consequences of this tax one way or the other. But for a more amusing turn, we'll send you off for a bit to the 2PoliticalJunkies blog, from whom I'm going to borrow a graphic:

Yes. The overlap is rather telling, and it's all about Lamar Advertising. So here we have two lame ducks in a pile of...

Voting to go without interviews, and then to approve nominees, were Ricky Burgess, Darlene Harris, Mr. Motznik, Tonya Payne and Theresa Smith.--source

Nope. Different issue, but the usual suspects. Here, the same five people gave a rubber stamp to 12 of the mayor's nominees to various city boards. In other words, these five people prevented the city council from interviewing those people the mayor appointed to influential city jobs.

Now, dissonance has formed here about the budget. Both are speaking as though they have authority, the ICA and Ravenstahl. Let's be clear: the City Controller has a veto, and he must submit the budget to the ICA. The consequences of Ravenstahl's attitude is a game of chicken with the state government, which means it's with Ed Rendell and likely straight to Tom Corbett (who's already sharpening an axe for Perzel & company).

The state-picked Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority ruled Tuesday that $16.2 million in tuition tax revenue can't be included in the 2010 budget, because the tax is unproven, not specifically authorized by any state or local legislation and likely to face a court challenge.--source

So in other words, Luke's now openly doing what he's been told by the people with the authority is illegal. He is imposing an illegal tax, based solely off the necessity mandated by a corrupt administration doing one thing and saying the other. Having touted all its virtues, he now has to make things good, and he can't do that without pissing off all his buddies. So his toadies make one last stab at throwing Pittsburgh under a bus.

Of all the various needless complaints about having an under-30 mayor, this is possibly the most justified. Even a veteran political hack like Onorato is a little, just a little bit more careful than this. All that power's gone to Luke's head. It's probably only a matter of time before Ed Rendell comes around and lops it off.