"Myself, I think we absolutely must give UMPC their tax breaks," Mayor Ravenstahl admonished City Council. "Sure, at the end of the day it will leave a divot -- rather, a hole in the budget. But that shortfall will be made up by new businesses and suburbanites who will move to the city because of The Pittsburgh Promise. Sure, many of those businesses will get TIFs and many new homeowners will have 10-yr property tax abatements, but that shortfall will be made up by the extra taxes generated by the new casino and the hockey arena. Sure, those tax dollars have already been promised for neighborhood development, but we can easily make up that shortfall by the extra garbage we're picking up in Wilkinsburg. True, the Wilkinsburg garbage contract is break-even at best. To be honest, it might even be a little short. But what we lose in per-pound profits, we can certainly make up in volume….."
