Turzai’s tempest

House quickly moves on speaker’s pet bill

Many good bills never get a hearing in Harrisburg or a vote out of committee, let alone an express ride through the legislative process.

But when the House speaker favors it, even a horrible bill can be speeded to the floor with a high likelihood that the majority caucus — the speaker’s caucus — will blindly vote for it.

That’s House Speaker Mike Turzai’s gameplan for getting himself a voice on the Allegheny County Airport Authority as a $1.1 billion modernization of Pittsburgh International Airport gets underway. Mr. Turzai said his call to restructure the authority board is about “good government” and accountability.

But it’s really about asserting some control over the board. When Harrisburg power brokers start talking about accountability, something more has to be up.

Right now, all nine authority board members are nominated by county Executive Rich Fitzgerald and confirmed by county council. Mr. Turzai, R-Bradford Woods, wants to increase the number of board members to 13, cut Mr. Fitzgerald’s appointments to eight and put the remainder of the seats under the control of legislative leaders and the governor.

It’s a terrible idea partly because of the timing. Enlarging the board invites corruption and political gamesmanship as big-dollar contracts for the airport overhaul are let.

However, Mr. Turzai is determined to muscle his way into the authority’s business, so the legislative machinery has been throttled up and this bill given a level of importance denied most other legislation. The bill was referred to the Local Government Committee on April 5 and voted out of that committee, without public input, on April 29. This is quick work for a chamber that typically ignores or drags its feet on true good-government initiatives and many other worthy bills as well.

The legislation now is before the full House. The bill also would have to pass the GOP-controlled Senate before going to Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf, who has said he opposes it. So the authority board restructuring is not a done deal, though Mr. Turzai undoubtedly is doing his best.

Is it coincidence — more “good government” on Mr. Turzai’s part — that he’s also now suing to stop the county Redevelopment Authority from distributing gaming money? Because of the suit, the redevelopment authority last week suspended the planned distribution of $1.9 million to 15 entities, including the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh and the Elizabeth Seton Center in Brookline.

Mr. Turzai claims the money should be distributed by a state authority, on which he has representation, not the redevelopment authority, on which he has none. According to his suit, the redevelopment authority argues that control over the money shifts to the state next year, not this year.

It’s foolish for a quibble like this to hold up funding to worthy recipients.

Being speaker of the House is nice work if you can get it. Mr. Turzai should better wield the considerable power he already has, not maneuver for more.