Pittsburgh Homes Daily - A Blog on Pittsburgh, its Real Estate, Realtors, Homes for Sale, and Things to Do � Supreme Court decision in Cuno a loss for

Pittsburgh Homes Daily - A Blog on Pittsburgh, its Real Estate, Realtors, Homes for Sale, and Things to Do -- Supreme Court decision in Cuno a loss for Pittsburgh residents? On May 15th, the Supreme Court handed a loss to Toledo taxpayers in Cuno when it held that the taxpayers did not have standing to challenge the decision to provide tax breaks to Daimler Chrysler. Pittsburgh also provides this type of tax break (there was a large discussion back in February that can be seen on Mark Rauterkus’ blog here). This issue is particularly relevant to Pittsburgh because of the effect of university supported developments on the tax base (check out the 2004 USA Today article here and the 2003 Pittsburgh Tribune-Review article here).

It is unclear whether or not this is a win for Pittsburgh taxpayers. On one hand, it may be that the business development would not otherwise happen in Pittsburgh without tax breaks and the development will ultimately generate more revenue than is lost to the tax breaks. On the other hand, it might be a loss for Pittsburgh taxpayers because it hampers the ability of residents to challenge the decision of who gets the tax breaks and the tax breaks may not generate enough revenue to cover that which is lost.

Interesting insights.