Fwd: NEWS ALERT: County Councilman Matt Drozd will call upon Council to subpoena the records of Visit Pittsburgh to make them accountable for the expenditure of hard-earned tax dollars

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From: "Matthew Drozd" <mdrozd@verizon.net>
Date: Nov 19, 2013 3:19 PM
Subject: NEWS ALERT: County Councilman Matt Drozd will call upon Council to subpoena the records of Visit Pittsburgh to make them accountable for the expenditure of hard-earned tax dollars
To: <mattdrozd@verizon.net>
Cc:

MATT DROZD DISTRICT 1       COMMITTEES   Appointment Review Budget & Finance Economic Dev.& Housing Parks Public Safety     Office of the County Council 119 Courthouse ∙ 436 Grant Street Pittsburgh, PA 15219 Phone (412) 350-6525 ∙ Home Phone (412) 364-1600 Matt.Drozd@AlleghenyCounty.us Http://www.AlleghenyCounty..us/council           MEDIA ADVISORY, November 19, 2013 County Councilman Matt Drozd will ask his fellow council members to subpoena the records of Visit Pittsburgh.  Numerous times County Councilman Drozd has sent formal written inquiries to Visit Pittsburgh asking them to send their records to County Council.  The news media has also made inquiries as to their expenditures of tax dollars.  To date, they have never fully complied with his or the news media’s request.   When doing so, the Councilman notes that Visit Pittsburgh currently receives 40% of the 5% of the revenue generated by the Hotel-Motel tax which has amounted to more than $8,000,000 in the previous year and a large sum of the tax payer’s money is being spent on salaries for Viisit Pittsburgh employees which vastly exceed the median income level of this region.  Visit Pittsburgh employs approx. 8 employees making over $100,000 annually and according to its website, Visit Pittsburgh received over $7 million in 2011 from hotel tax revenues of which approx. $4 million was spent on salaries and bonuses, amounting to about half of the tax revenues they received.  In addition to very high salary and benefit packages in relation to expenditures, Visit Pittsburgh retained two directors for over 6 months with a salary package of approx. $400,000 and $370,000 was spent on office space.   When asking County Council to subpoena the records of Visit Pittsburgh, County Councilman is quoted as saying that “any agency whether they be for non-profit or governmental in nature must be accountable to the taxpayers when spending their hard-earned tax dollars.  All who receive tax dollars must provide an accounting for these hard-earned tax dollars and must open their books to the public as well.   Visit Pittsburgh is no exception to this rule and they must be made to comply”   When:  Tonight at Legislative session of County Council, November 19th at 5:00 PM Where:  Gold room of the Courthouse                                                                                  # # # #               To

 

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