Amid the renewed calls yesterday for a celebration of Pittsburgh's 250th birthday, PNC Financial Services Group Chairman James Rohr told an audience of business owners that Pittsburgh still has work to do if it expects to be competitive.

Mr. Rohr, who also chairs the Allegheny Conference on Community Development, the group planning the anniversary celebration, said barriers to entry for prospective companies include:

High business taxes (the state has the second highest corporate net income tax in the country);

Government fragmentation (Allegheny County has 130 municipalities -- "a joke" Mr. Rohr said);

Air service (the region still lacks a direct flight to Europe);

And the need to develop a skilled work force .

"Without facing these problems, we won't grow and we won't be able to recognize the future that is available to our children," he said.

One subject highlighted by Mr. Rohr and others yesterday involved the lowering of electricity rates for large industrial customers -- a U.S. Steel executive referred to the costs as "among the highest in the country." The conference is backing legislation proposed by state Sen. Jane Orie and state Sen. Jay Costa that would allow large industrial users such as Allegheny Technologies or U.S. Steel to buy electricity under long-term contracts with local distribution companies such as Duquesne Light (the current rules limit contracts to three years or less), allowing more control over fluctuating spot prices.

Speciality steelmaker Allegheny Technologies said the current system -- imposed by a 1996 deregulation of the power industry -- is making it difficult to justify a new rolling mill in Pennsylvania, as opposed to West Virginia or Kentucky. "We want to stay in Pennsylvania," said company spokesman Dan Greenfield .

Richard Hudson of Downtown-based electricity supplier Strategic Energy calls the push for long-term contracts "anti-competitive" since larger users can already arrange such agreements through competing providers, such as Strategic Energy. Strategic Energy's manager of regulatory affairs claims that what large companies such as Allegheny Technologies or U.S. Steel "really want are contracts at below-market rates" and "other customers will pick up the tab for that."