Get On Board: City can’t keep bickering while huge incinerator debt remains

Harrisburg’s financial picture is too perilous to continue the luxury of a mayor and a city council talking past each other. Everyone needs to be on board to figure out the best strategy to deal with an incinerator that threatens to bankrupt the city.

And maybe for once we could get some agreement on just what the financial prospects are of the incinerator ever paying for itself and its massive $300 million debt, without annual subsidies from the city.

The incinerator debacle is an old story. And except for the fact that the plant in south Harrisburg is expected to be operating at its peak capacity of burning 800 tons of municipal waste per day early next year, the news doesn’t get any better.

Back when the incinerator was less than $200 million in debt, the public was told that a retrofit would generate sufficient revenues not only to cover the old debt but also the new debt incurred in practically rebuilding the entire three-burner plant from scratch. We had our doubts, but it got worse than even we expected when the first contractor botched the project.

The Harrisburg Authority, which technically owns the incinerator, hired a quality company, Covanta Energy, to fid and run it on the second try. And still we were told that it would all work out in the end financially, even make a profit in the out years.

Now a new analysis by Public Financial Management, which was hired by the authority, projects that next year’s loss at the incinerator would reach $13 million. And this comes after a major increase in city and county trash rates, along with financial backing from the city and county for a $30 million bridge loan to get the incinerator through the repair period.

It hasn’t helped that Mayor Stephen R. Reed and members of city council have been at odds through this entire mess, even to the point of both sides going to court to fight over control of the authority. Having lost that battle, the mayor claims that until recently the authority kept him in the dark about the shaky state of its financial affairs, which aren’t confined to the incinerator. It is hardly credible that the mayor wouldn’t’ know anything about the authority’s finances that he wanted to know.

Patty Kim, one of the few members of council who doesn’t appear to have her own partisan agenda, made the analysis known, stating, “I’m trying to sound the alarm…it’s definitely not looking good for the Harrisburg Authority.”

There is plenty of blame to go around for this fiasco. But pointing fingers isn’t going to help in addressing what Kim likens to a “tsunami.” For the common good, the mayor and members of council need to put aside their squabbles and start acting like grown-ups.