Lots of rats, lots of holes, lots of droppings - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

Lots of rats, lots of holes, lots of droppings - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: "Wagner is no big fan of one big boondoggle -- the Port Authority of Allegheny County's North Shore Connector. That's the half-billion-dollar project to tunnel underneath the Allegheny River, extending the subway to the Pittsburgh North Side. The 'benefits' -- what benefits? -- do not justify the cost.

And simply outlandish is that when costs kept escalating, the project was pared and federal funding became a huge question mark, the Port Authority turned into Betty Crocker and double-fudged the numbers in an attempt to make the taxpayer molestation go down like a spoonful of sugar. There should be a federal investigation.

That said, Wagner subscribes to the same pork-pushing poltroonery that continues to drain vital resources from the public kitty. This is not a direct quote from Wagner but it does accurately reflect the spirit of her position: 'The project's been approved; if our region doesn't spend the money, some other region will.'

Of course, Wagner is not the sole proprietor of this mind-set. Politicians of all stripes say the same thing. 'If we don't get ours, they'll get ours.' But it's a fallacy of logic to say that once a rathole has been identified, it's still OK to pour money down it because, hey, it may be a rathole but at least it's our rathole."