I know we spend our share of time criticizing the state legislature, but this bill makes a lot of sense.

The (Ravenstahl) endorsement came just before a morning hearing of the state House Local Government Committee in Council Chamber at which Rep. Bob Freeman, D-Northampton, outlined legislation to shift revenue from the Johnstown Flood Tax, an 18 percent levy on state liquor store sales enacted after the 1936 deluge.

“We think it’s an innovative approach to a well-known, long-standing problem,” said city Finance Director Scott Kunka.

Mr. Freeman said he wants to move the bill out of committee within months, after tweaking the formula for awarding the aid.

Municipalities “are failing, by and large, because they don’t have a tax base anymore, and the biggest contributor to that is [growth of] tax-exempt nonprofits,” he said in a meeting with the Post-Gazette editorial board prior to the hearing. “Since the inception of the [flood] tax was to help the victims of a natural disaster, it would be helpful to earmark it to victims of a municipal financial disaster.”