Don’t buy into plan allowing municipalities to disband

Regarding “County Officials Describe Proposal That Would Let Municipalities Disband” (May 12): Make no mistake. The plan put forth by Dan Onorato, Jim Roddey and Rich Fitzgerald to allow municipalities to disband so that Allegheny County can take over governmental services is no more or no less than the same plan put forth in 2008 by Mr. Onorato when he was county executive. That plan was to merge the city of Pittsburgh with Allegheny County into one governmental entity.

Just as then, the ultimate goal is to give the resultant county government the ability to force the independent municipalities, governmental bodies that have managed their money in a competent manner, to pay for years and years of poor spending management by the officials in the city of Pittsburgh.

This proposal doesn’t attempt to improve the fiscal situation of “poor” municipalities, but rather its goal is to strip assets and money from municipalities that have little or no debt to “level the playing field,” leaving everyone in the county in a diminished situation. From each according to their means, to each according to their needs. Where have we heard that before?

According to the article, if Pittsburgh disbands, the government responsibility goes to the state of Pennsylvania, but how long do you think it will take the proponents of this move to convince the state that Allegheny County should be managing the city affairs?

And don’t believe for a minute the assurances that this program will be completely voluntary. It may be presented as such at the start, but that will soon pass and significant pressure will be put on the municipalities that choose not to participate to join the merged county government.

This was a bad idea when it was first proposed. It still is a bad idea. LAWRENCE R. STECKEL

McCandless