Port Authority, learn to manage your finances

It would be nice for every business that did not make the best fiscal decisions to ask the state to bail it out, but it is not the state's responsibility to do that and most businesses understand that. So should the Port Authority of Allegheny County ("Port Authority Says Pa. Needs to Chip In," June 16).

In a time when people are looking to cut back on car costs, parking fees and gas expenses, more people are using the bus or trolley. Port Authority rates have increased twice in the last three years and a third increase is threatened. Where is the money?

The Port Authority must adjust to the current sad economic state that every business is dealing with and make the cuts in the appropriate areas. Reports of overpaid employees and lavish pension and retirement packages will not draw sympathy from the state or the community. Rather than make the sacrifices that all businesses are making in order to survive the times, the Port Authority uses the media as a tool to frighten the community and pressure the state to bail it out.

It is time for the Port Authority to manage its costs and increase its revenue the way everyone else has to -- hard work, sacrifice and ingenuity.

SHAWN BALASCHAK
Whitehall