Letter to the editor: Penguins should pay damages to taxpayers

The editorial “Penguins miss shot with arena development project in Lower Hill District” (May 15, TribLIVE) missed the mark. This is not about the Penguins or Stanley Cups, rather a broken agreement. The saga began with owner Mario Lemieux’s threat to move the team to Kansas City if he didn’t get a new publicly funded arena.

On March 13, 2007, Gov. Ed Rendell penned the “Pittsburgh Arena Term Sheet” which agreed to fund a new arena and demolish the Civic Arena, approved as a historic landmark by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission (PHMC) in 2001. The demolition also violated the RAD law to “preserve” regional assets, wasting millions in county sales tax revenue.

The term sheet agreed to pave the Civic Arena into a parking lot and give all future parking revenue to the Penguins, who have raked in millions from daily commuter and event parking.

The Penguins also received naming rights to buildings they don’t own — Civic to Mellon to Consol to PPG Paints, an estimated worth of $200-plus million. Each time, the taxpayers paid for new highway signs to reflect the name changes.

Since the Penguins received exclusive redevelopment rights, why did the city and county apply for state and federal grants and give tax increment financing and Local Economic Revitalization Tax Assistance tax breaks?

Contractual redevelopment of 2.8 acres per year have yielded multiple extensions and broken proposals. After 13 years, it’s time to stop this madness. The Penguins should refund the parking revenues and hand over the naming rights revenues as damages to the taxpayers.

Gary J. English

Murrysville