| abstract | - According to CPA and Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato, there were only two choices to solve the Port Authority's self-created financial woes: increase property taxes or create a new bureaucracy consisting of a dozen or so people. There's a third choice -- cutting costs. How about increasing the 25 years of service it takes to retire at full salary plus benefits? Or better yet, how about setting up a 401(k) plan like most of us working stiffs have? Or how about taking a look at feather-bedding (union-dictated amount of work an employee is allowed to do)? Or better yet, go nonunion. Government employees shouldn't be allowed to unionize in the first place, since they are not subject to the same market forces that control compensation in the private sector. Or how about reducing management's compensation and obscene perks? How much talent does it take to run a "monopoly"? Or how about looking into the possibility of establishing a real board of directors consisting primarily of independent citizens free of vested interests? Maybe we could try electing people other than Democrats for a while and see what happens. By its very nature, there are two things inherent in government -- inefficiency and corruption. These problems become magnified when voters permit one-party rule. Harvey Bower, Mt. Lebanon
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