This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Politics & Government

Allegheny County Exec Race Heads Into Final Days

Fitzgerald and Raja continue to mix it up in this nasty race.

 many times, slung a fair amount of mud at each other, and now, after spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on advertising, signs and staff, Allegheny County voters get the final say Tuesday on who will be their next County Executive, the Republican nominee, D. Raja, or Democrat Rich Fitzgerald.

Raja, like any Republican in Allegheny County faces an uphill battle where Democrats outnumber the GOP by a roughly 3-1 margin. In an apparent attempt to counter the disparity, Raja outspent Fitzgerald by a 2-to-1 margin from June through late October, according the last major campaign finance reports before the Nov. 8 election.

Both promise to keep taxes at bay, while improving the economic climate and retaining current social services. Where they differ is how to accomplish those goals.

Find out what's happening in Chartiers Valleywith free, real-time updates from Patch.

 

Drink Tax
Their most obvious policy difference is over the county’s 7 percent poured alcohol drink tax. If elected, Raja promises to eliminate the drink tax in his first budget. Raja blames the drink tax, enacted along with a rental car tax to help fund the struggling Port Authority, for making it harder for Pittsburgh to attract conventions, among other things.

Find out what's happening in Chartiers Valleywith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Raja says he would make up the $35 million in lost revenue through unspecified savings.

Fitzgerald says the drink tax is a necessary evil used to leverage state matching dollars for mass transit, and a way to prevent a property tax increase.

 

Property Taxes & Reassessments
There is little disagreement here. Both candidates support statewide standards for property assessment. If elected, Fitzgerald has pledged to refuse to send out the new certified assessment numbers early next year, unless the Legislature adopted statewide standards for valuing properties.

Mr. Raja, said politicians have ignored the issue of consistent reassessment for too long. He promises to work with Republican Gov. Tom Corbett and members of both houses of the Legislature to develop a plan covering all of the state’s 67 counties.

It’s not surprising that the candidates don’t differ on the property reassessment issue. Republican Jim Roddey’s implementation of a property reassessment during his first term is considered by many to be one of the main reasons he lost re-election to Democrat Dan Onorato in 2003.

 

Mass Transit
The candidates presented different approaches, however, on ongoing issues with Allegheny County Port Authority services. Raja said the rising legacy and benefit costs for Port Authority employees have crippled the public transit system's finances, even after the county laid off employees and  to commuters earlier this year. Fitzgerald says he would look into including counties outside Allegheny County in public transit in order to cut costs and expand service.

 

Marcellus Shale Drilling
 during a breakfast forum at the Pittsburgh Airport Holiday Inn in mid-October. Both men said Marcellus shale drilling on county property around the airport complex could serve as an economic boon for the surrounding communities.

Raja said he would support the development of “innovation centers” near the airport and where drilling takes place, while Fitzgerald said he would “work to get more flights at the airport.”

 

Social Programs
At a forum hosted by WQED-TV last week, Fitzgerald promised to restore $21 million dollars in spending cuts for youth and other social services proposed by outgoing executive Dan Onorato. However, Fitzgerald offered no specifics on where he would find the money.

Raja said he would look for inefficiencies in county programs and examine government performance audits as a way of producing more funds for social services.

 

Backgrounds

D. Raja is founder of the local software and IT company Computer Enterprises Inc. and served as a Mt. Lebanon commissioner until his nomination for County Executive in the spring primary. Prior to founding his own company, Raja worked for six years at Formtek, a Lockheed Martin company. He was born in Bangalore, India and came to America in 1986. He earned a masters degree in computer science from the University of Pittsburgh and a masters in business administration from Carnegie Mellon University. Raja lives in Mt. Lebanon with his wife and two daughters.

 

Rich Fitzgerald is sole proprietor of Aquanef, a water treatment consulting and sales company. He is currently in his fourth term as Allegheny County Council President. Prior to Aquanef, Fitzgerald worked at Nalco Chemical Company, out of state. He returned to Pittsburgh in the mid-1980s and earned a mechanical engineering degree from Carnegie Mellon University. He was born in Bloomfield and graduated from Central Catholic High School. Fitzgerald lives in Squirrel Hill with his wife and eight children. 

Both candidates are using social media to help their campaigns. You can follow Raja here on Twitter  and here on Facebook . The Fitzgerald campaign tweets here  and its Facebook page is located here .

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?

More from Chartiers Valley