Mayor O’Connor Submits 2027 Preliminary Budget and Five-Year Plan to City Council Focused on Fundamental Government Services, Financial Transparency and Growth
Pittsburgh, PA – After 10 months of a line-by-line comprehensive assessment of the City’s budget and financial position, Mayor Corey O’Connor submitted his preliminary 2027 budget and five-year plan to City Council today, issuing the following statement:
“Last year, I kicked off my campaign for mayor with a speech about the City sleepwalking back into a financial crisis. My administration has uncovered that the crisis is worse than we feared and will hit sooner than expected.
As Mayor, I promised the people of Pittsburgh honesty, transparency and accountability and that my administration would work hard every day to build a vibrant city that works for all residents, families, neighborhoods, small businesses and communities.
After years of mismanagement, we inherited a misleading budget that was missing hundreds of millions of dollars from the five-year plan. With deceptive and irresponsible budgeting gimmicks from small line items to large expenses, the structure of the budget was unsustainable and created a false picture of our financial situation.
Past budgets were overly reliant on the COVID-19 American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding and grants that are expiring, both of which funded critical programs with no plan to fund them once those monies ran out. Furthermore, it is no secret that the Trump administration has taken aim at cutting key programs and funding that have directly supported our own neighborhoods and communities. Those policies are now trickling down to cities like Pittsburgh and city government is being asked to provide even more. At the same time, expenditures are increasing at twice the rate of revenues.
Simply put, if Pittsburgh continues on this course, it will end in financial catastrophe. As I’ve been promising all along, my administration is willing to be honest and make the tough decisions rather than kicking the can down the road for another mayor or City Council to deal with. No more budget gimmicks, no more governing by trust funds. It’s time to restore truth and responsibility in our budgeting process and focus on the fundamental government services that the hardworking people that built this city deserve.
By making the difficult decisions today, I am confident that there is a better financial future for Pittsburgh by investing in growth, housing and small businesses. So far this year, my administration has increased investments in our main streets; increased investment in our vehicle fleet; increased investment in public safety and programs for the unhoused and those experiencing crisis; increased investment in snow removal; increased investment in our parks; and increased investment to expand the Learn & Earn youth employment program to run year-round.
Today, I am presenting a preliminary budget that increases funding for the most fundamental services for our residents. There are no layoffs and no tax increases in this budget, but it includes expanding funding for:
- Reaching Out on the Streets (ROOTS) program through the Office of Community Health and Safety
- Paving
- Fleet Vehicles
- Landslides and Stormwater Mitigation
- Violence Interruption, Youth Violence Outreach Work and Trauma-Informed Care Programs
The preliminary budget also includes millions of dollars of investment in the Urban Redevelopment Authority to support affordable housing, small business development and a pro-growth strategy that will create a stronger tax base for the future.
My administration is presenting an honest budget that gets rid of two key gimmicks that were used in the past. The first is to stop using one-time funding sources to fill key staff positions without a sustainable plan to keep them. This preliminary budget will move those positions into the operating budget to ensure they continue to be funded appropriately, and our communities continue to receive those services.
The second is to end the trust fund gimmick of spending tens of millions of dollars without counting them as expenditures using fund transfers. The Stop the Violence Trust Fund and the Housing Opportunity Fund currently both have over $10 million in cash reserves, which will allow us to continue to invest in the critical work paid through these trust funds without the transfers.
Instead of the transfers, we will put the programs and positions currently in these trust funds into the operating budget, so that the important work will continue while being transparent with the City’s finances.
This preliminary budget will also allow us to continue the work I’ve done in these first 10 months including permit reform to make it easier for homeowners and businesses to grow, investing in public safety, fortifying our snow fleet, expanding ROOTS operations to nights and weekends, expanding programming and hours at our recreation centers, directly hiring key staff who are focused on violence prevention, upgrading our little league ballfields and playgrounds, opening new businesses in our main streets, opening modernized public safety facilities, securing millions of dollars to support the transformation of vacant land into housing-ready sites and raising almost $100 million in partnerships with local organizations.
While this preliminary budget is balanced for 2027 using money from the rainy day fund, it clearly shows that the City’s budget is structurally unbalanced. Throughout the five-year projections, the rainy day fund will be depleted and the City will ultimately run out of money. In the year ahead, we must work with partners on finding new revenue sources, reducing expenditures, growing our population and tax base and continuing to make the tough decisions to operate an efficient and lean city government that delivers for the people of Pittsburgh.
I’d like to thank City Council and Controller Rachael Heisler for their partnership in understanding this challenging financial position and sharing our vision for a stronger Pittsburgh through responsible budgeting and investment in our communities.
I’d also want to recognize the outstanding work of Rea Price, Elizabeth Cercone, David Hutchinson, Jennifer Gula and the entire staff in the Office of Management and Budget and Department of Finance.
Critically, I am presenting a budget that does not call for tax increases or layoffs. The alternative to my budget would be massive city staff layoffs, which we know from history affects how we deliver fundamental services, and, in turn, is felt most significantly in our most disadvantaged communities.
I want to be perfectly clear: if we don’t make these changes, there will be no recreation centers for parents to take their kids for free childcare; no pools for our youth in the summertime; deteriorating parks and playgrounds; dangerous flooding in prone neighborhoods; litter and blight building up on vacant properties; more unfilled potholes; and slower public safety response times.
When I came into office, we knew that we were entering lean years, but we didn’t know just how lean. My message to the people of Pittsburgh is this: we have made the tough decisions that I promised you I would. But this budget also continues our vital investments in our neighborhoods, our business districts, our public safety, our youth and families, and the growth and future of our city. Today, I am presenting a budget that will navigate these challenges while continuing to deliver the fundamental government services that every Pittsburgher, every neighborhood and every community deserves.”
A copy of the O’Connor Administration’s preliminary 2027 Operating Budget can be found here and the preliminary 2027 Capital Budget can be found here.
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