http://www.post-gazette.com/columnists Brian O'Neill's column en-us Copyright 2012, post-gazette.com. Fri, 10 Feb 2012 07:09:55 -0500 15 http://www.post-gazette.com/includes/2007design/images/150x30pg_now_logo.gif http://www.post-gazette.com/ 144 39 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12040/1209016-155-0.stm?cmpid=oneill.xml The Bonusgate scandal is winding down in Harrisburg even as the list of convicted lawmakers grows, but there's still one item that isn't quite resolved: bonuses themselves. Thu, 9 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12036/1207974-155.stm?cmpid=oneill.xml "In retrospect,'' Bill DeWeese told me over dinner last June, "I should have been more administratively punctilious.'' That's the way Mr. DeWeese always has spoken in his 35 years representing Pennsylvania's southwest corner in the state House. Sun, 5 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12033/1207577-155-0.stm?cmpid=oneill.xml Sometimes the connection between a front-page story and one in the Magazine section isn't immediately obvious, but I see the potential for property tax relief in this new craze for "gender cake reveal parties." Thu, 2 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12029/1206403-155.stm?cmpid=oneill.xml My bachelor uncle died last year at 97. When we sold his house in Queens, the one he bought in the 1940s with his long-since-departed siblings, my two sisters, brother and I came into a little money. It wasn't so much that anybody had to pay an estate tax. That kicks in only after $5 million, and my uncle was an airport customs agent who lived in Archie Bunker's old neighborhood, Flushing. Sun, 29 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12026/1206082-155-0.stm?cmpid=oneill.xml A state House committee approved a bill Tuesday to downsize that chamber by 50 seats, potentially saving Pennsylvania's budget tens of millions of dollars each year. Don't count that money just yet. At the moment, the 16-8 committee vote is no more binding than that ol' parental response, "We'll see," when a kid asks for a BB gun for his birthday. Thu, 26 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12022/1204912-155.stm?cmpid=oneill.xml We know the Port Authority is dependent on state money for its survival, but consider how much the state reaps from the people riding the buses. Allegheny County workers do more than their share for the commonwealth's coffers. Among taxes that can be tracked by county, Allegheny contributes 11.6 percent of the state's revenue. Sun, 22 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12019/1204442-155-0.stm?cmpid=oneill.xml Twenty years of pouring and more than 100 couples matched up between pints -- Mullaney's Harp & Fiddle will be celebrating its milestones on Feb. 4. If a pub is to be known for something, it can do worse than be known as The Place Where You're Most Likely To Find Your One And Only. Thu, 19 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12015/1203359-155.stm?cmpid=oneill.xml F. Scott Fitzgerald lied. The Jazz Age author said there are no second acts in American lives, but he never met John Murray or Marjorie Smuts. Both widowed and in their 70s, they married on Dec. 28, but that's not the half of it. I met the newlyweds in their Shadyside home on a recent afternoon after hearing about their first week of marriage from Mr. Murray's son, Tim. Sun, 15 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12012/1203018-155-0.stm?cmpid=oneill.xml I don't think Judge R. Stanton Wettick Jr. has a political bone in his body, but his order this week is great politics. The Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas judge let county Executive Rich Fitzgerald know he won't get to play the martyr by going to jail to stop the new assessments (assessments that should lower the taxes on more than half of city homes, by the way). Thu, 12 Jan 2012 10:42:00 -0500