City adopts budget
No federal relief in sight; jobs in limbo
Hundreds of city jobs could be on the line without federal help, Pittsburgh officials said Monday, pointing out that there is none in a $900 billion bill Congress has pegged for COVID-19 relief.
Pittsburgh City Council on Monday passed a $564 million operating budget that contains no tax increase but keeps the city afloat only until summer, when the administration warns that over 600 jobs could be cut.
“To be clear, the budget passed today is a stopgap measure to assure we can pay our bills beginning in 2021 and we can continue a minimum level of services for the citizens of Pittsburgh,” said Councilman Daniel Lavelle, chair of the Finance and Law Committee. “... The budget is currently balanced by the elimination of hundreds of employees citywide beginning July 1. If there is no federal or other new assistance by June, those reductions will have to be implemented.”
Several of the city’s revenue streams, particularly amusement and parking taxes, were hit hard by COVID-19’s economic fallout.
The city is behind by roughly $76 million in projected budgeted revenue for 2020 as of Sept. 30, a figure council budget office officials described as a conservative estimate. That is slated to grow to $130 million through 2021.
Once the fund balance is spent down to its legally required minimum — which council lowered in response to the COVID-19 crisis — the city will face a $26 million hole by mid-summer.
While the 2021 budget is balanced in part on departmental
cuts and the elimination of 162 full-time unfilled positions, the mayor has warned that if no federal assistance is provided, his administration will need to make a decision on 634 existing jobs.
A compromise virus relief bill in Congress grants hundreds of billions in forgivable small business loans, extends unemployment benefits and provides $600 direct payments to most Americans but excludes help for cities.
“We remain hopeful that the federal government and incoming President-elect Joe Biden will help to provide some level of assistance to state and local governments, including the city of Pittsburgh,” Mr. Lavelle said in his budget remarks. “However, regardless of the level of assistance, or if assistance doesn’t arrive at all, we will have to work with the mayor again but reopening this budget and substantially change line items.”
Those changes could include an $8.8 million reduction in police salaries and other public safety services, Mr. Lavelle said.
For weeks — including as recently as Saturday — activists, many of whom joined this summer’s groundswell of protests against police brutality, have been asking council to decrease the city’s $111 million police budget and divert the funds to housing and other social service programs.
Roughly $5.3 million from the city’s general fund will go toward the administration’s new Office of Community Health and Safety as well as anti-violence programs; a bill championed by Mr. Lavelle and Councilman Ricky Burgess in July requires a budgetary obligation to such programs.
“This will begin to change how we look at public safety with a focus on prevention by addressing mental health, homelessness and other circumstances that should lie outside policing,” Mr. Lavelle said.
Councilman Corey O’Connor last week worked with the mayor’s office to move $4.1 million from the city’s $125 million capital budget and apply it to housing and small business loan programs.
“I’d like to thank City Council for their hard work and support in passing a balanced 2021 budget while our city faces extraordinary financial challenges,” Mayor Bill Peduto said in a written statement. “I am grateful for the leadership of City Council President Theresa Kail-Smith and Council Finance Chairman Daniel Lavelle in managing these challenges to produce a budget that reflects our shared continued commitment to investing in our neighborhoods and the people of Pittsburgh.”
While no tax increase was attached to the passing of next year’s budget, council gave tentative approval to the voter-approved property tax hike by a half mill — or $50 on every $100,000 of assessed property value.
Voters narrowly approved the increase in November 2019, when a referendum appeared on the ballot asking them if they wanted “equitably fund parks in underserved neighborhoods throughout Pittsburgh.”
Council squabbled through the winter on how to split the funds — meant mostly for rehabilitation, maintenance and capital projects — before the pandemic crisis derailed their debate.
The administration revived the bill last week. All members voted in favor Monday of enacting the tax hike and creating a trust fund for the revenue, with the exception of Anthony Coghill, Mr. O’Connor and Councilwoman Deb Gross.
Mr. O’Connor said he would have rather waited to vote on a tax hike.
“We know that parks are very important, and I love the parks. I just think with a pandemic ... another six months wouldn’t hurt. We all know we’re not going to do any construction in those next six months,” he said.