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Transparency ensures public gets answers

The words “irreconcilable differences” didn’t — and don’t — delve into the specifics about why the Blair County commissioners cut ties with the architectural firm working on the new-county-prison project. Commissioner Amy Webster, who offered that vague explanation following a commissioners meeting on July 23, said “there were several things that we couldn’t get answers to,” but those additional words also failed to shed light on specifics about which county taxpayers have a right to have clear information, even if not every detail. However, Webster did say the ...

Region must remain great destination

One of the definitions in Webster’s Dictionary for the word “destination,” besides the definition “a place to which one is journeying,” is “a place worthy of travel or an extended visit.” That last definition is apropos, for a number of reasons, for this region — especially when one ponders several recent events. Think back to earlier this month when the world’s largest operating steam engine — Big Boy — arrived in Altoona, “posed” at Norfolk Southern Railroad’s Rose Yard for two days, then traveled to the Horseshoe Curve, where it “posed” again for ...

Facing issues best done immediately

Too often, elected officials act as if they are walking among uncooked eggs when they’re faced with a tough issue. They are fearful of cracking open the eggs and unleashing a sticky, hard-to-clean-up mess — when sometimes such a mess already exists. It was the Blair County commissioners who were faced with that kind of a dilemma early this year in connection with the county Planning Commission but, to their credit, they navigated it appropriately. Recent days confirmed the importance and correctness of what action they felt they needed to take, as well as how problematic ...

Lawmakers need lessons on compromise

Pennsylvania has an approved 2026-27 budget; that’s the good news. The bad news is how much unfinished budget-related business the state General Assembly has before it, but was unable to accomplish, despite missing the June 30 statutory budget-completion deadline by nearly two weeks. For starters, lawmakers were unable to come to agreement on a regulatory framework for skill games, including taxing those devices. While some state residents might regard that as unimportant, from a fiscal standpoint it is, because it is estimated that taxing those games could generate about $2 ...

Leniency on property right decision

Despite giving an example of blight in their municipality the tough attention it deserves, the Logan Township supervisors extended a degree of leniency — correctly — to the owner of a blighted property on Sandy Run Road, giving her about four months to get the unsightly situation under control. The supervisors had the option to file a misdemeanor code-violation charge against the property owner, based on the fact that repeated citations had been issued against the property. However, all considered, the supervisors’ action probably was the right move, due to all of the ...

Questions abound on state budget

What if, in the weeks leading up to April 15, Pennsylvania taxpayers adopted the attitude that they would settle their state tax obligation whenever they got around to it, whether that was before, on or after the tax-filing deadline? On or before, no problem. However, what if the bulk of taxpayers decided that the deadline wasn’t really important — that it was just a date — and that they would complete their tax filing — whenever? Again, no problem. There wouldn’t be any financial penalty for missing the deadline, including no interest penalty for any money owed. The ...