Allegheny County – September 10, 2021– State Senator Wayne Fontana (D-Allegheny) issued the following statement after the hearing held this week of the Senate Community, Economic and Recreational Development Committee regarding legislation authorizing new taxing ability in Allegheny County designed to increase revenues for VisitPITTSBURGH:
“I was disappointed with many of the answers and non-answers provided by VisitPITTSBURGH at Wednesday’s legislative hearing.
The question as to whether the economic benefit to the city and the county generated exclusively by the organization outweighs the cost to operate the organization is an important one to answer.
As chairman of the Sports & Exhibition Authority, I am concerned that an additional revenue stream could worsen the inequities between groups with the same goal, but with different financial obligations.
Therefore, before Harrisburg authorizes a new tax/fee on consumers, I believe it may be time to bring all region’s promotional entities in together to evaluate where there is overlap of mission and administrative excess.”
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