# Fact-check engine

Every load-bearing figure in the published story, traced to the document under it. The machine-readable ledgers are in [`02-data/`](02-data/); `03-harness/verify.py` confirms each cited `source_id` resolves to a source archived and hashed in [`01-sources-archive/`](01-sources-archive/), and `build.py` recomputes the headline figures. Run `python 03-harness/check.py` to confirm all of it offline.

## The spine: cost up, demand down

Two curves carry the story. The budget rose 54% while the terminal was built for a level of traffic Pittsburgh has not seen since before the US Airways hub collapsed.

| Figure | Value | Source |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Original budget (Sept 2017) | $1.1B | story-published |
| Final cost (April 2025) | $1.7B | story-published |
| Escalation | **+54% / ~$600M** | recomputed by `build.py` from `cost_revisions.csv` |
| 2024 demand | 9.95M passengers | story-published |
| Designed capacity | 13-15M/yr | story-published |
| Excess capacity above demand | **31-51%** | recomputed from `capacity.csv` |

The escalation is 54.5%; the story reports 54% and this package matches the published figure rather than round up.

## The three vacuums the story names

**1. The financing the authority did not total — reconstructed.** At the ribbon-cutting the Authority disclosed $129.7M federal (Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act) and $80M state, and did not give the bond total or the annual debt service. The audited **2024 Annual Comprehensive Financial Report** ([`acaa-acfr-2024`](01-sources-archive/raw/)) supplies both. The Terminal Modernization Program was financed with:

| Bond series | Par amount | Issued |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Series 2021 (2021A $719.85M + 2021B $112.82M) | $832.67M | Aug 26, 2021 |
| Series 2023 (2023A $346.96M + 2023B + 2023C) | ~$415.03M | Oct 12, 2023 |
| **Outstanding at year-end 2024** | **$1,247.70M** | |
| Senior-lien bonds (subsequent event) | ~$410.50M | Apr 2025 |

Annual debt service on the 2021 and 2023 bonds runs roughly **$77-81M a year** in 2026-2029 and totals **$2.505 billion** in principal and interest through maturity in 2056 (`debt_service.csv`, from the ACFR's debt-service schedule). The Authority must hold a 1.25x debt-service coverage ratio under its Master Trust Indenture. The 2019 CAFR ([`acaa-cafr-2019`](01-sources-archive/raw/)) sets the before-picture: the Authority had defeased ~$70.9M and carried little long-term airport revenue debt, so this stack is the terminal program's. **Scope note:** the debt-service schedule combines the 2021 and 2023 series; figures are Authority-reported (PIT + AGC), and the ~$410.5M April 2025 issuance postdates the audited period.

**2. The capacity-demand gap, unexplained.** A terminal designed for 13-15M passengers opened while 2024 demand sat at 9.95M. Airport officials did not explain the gap. The history behind it is in `passengers.csv`: a ~20M hub-era peak in the late 1990s, 15.1M in 2002, the US Airways de-hubbing in December 2004, a 7.8M low in 2013, and 9.95M in 2024.

**3. Permanent jobs, undisclosed.** The Authority claims 14,300 jobs (7,800 direct + 6,500 indirect) and $2.5B in economic impact. How many of the 14,300 construction jobs convert to permanent positions was not disclosed. Every figure in `impact_claims.csv` is labeled `authority_claim` and is not independently verified here; the Center for American Progress write-up ([`cap-pit-terminal`](01-sources-archive/raw/)) is archived as an independent description of the same claims.

## How to check this

```
python 03-harness/check.py
```

Re-hashes every archived source, confirms every cited figure resolves to one of them, and recomputes the cost, capacity, and financing figures. No network, no credentials.

## Open records gaps (documented, not smoothed over)

- **Permanent-jobs conversion**: how many of the 14,300 construction jobs become permanent is not disclosed by the Authority; a records request or follow-up is the path.
- **The ~$410.5M April 2025 issuance** postdates the audited 2024 ACFR (recorded there as a subsequent event); its final terms confirm against the 2025 ACFR ([`acaa-reports-index`](01-sources-archive/raw/) links it) or MSRB EMMA when a cross-check is wanted.
- **Independent verification of the 14,300-jobs / $2.5B figures**: these are the Authority's commissioned economic-impact study ([`acaa-economic-impact-study`](01-sources-archive/raw/), archived), not an independent estimate; they remain labeled as the Authority's claims.