No tax increase included in Peduto’s budget pitch
Staff would be added in police, fire bureaus
Pittsburgh would hold the line on city taxes while adding staff in the police, fire and medic bureaus under Mayor Bill Peduto’s budget plan for 2019.
Mr. Peduto is set to detail the proposal Tuesday morning during his annual budget address, when he will make his first formal appearance in a council meeting since the Tree of Life synagogue shootings Oct. 27.
In an interview last week, he said unsolicited gifts since the massacre will help equip and train emergency responders “to a much greater degree than what we had going into Squirrel Hill.” Eleven Jewish congregants died — and six people were hurt — in the attack along Wilkins Avenue.
Four Pittsburgh police officers were among the wounded.
“From a SWAT perspective, we know that there is certain equipment that would’ve been able to protect our officers better, especially those members of SWAT who are members of [Emergency Medical Services] and those [who] are going in to” treat people, Mr. Peduto said.
He wasn’t immediately certain how many charitable dollars may flow into the new Public Safety Support Trust Fund, which the city developed after the shooting to handle unexpected contributions that will support training, equipment and supply purchases in the Department of Public Safety. The department includes Pittsburgh police, firefighters and paramedics.
Department officials have an “extensive wish list” stemming from the fund, which the city will put to use next year, Mr. Peduto said. The money may qualify the
city for matching funds from grant programs elsewhere, he said.
The Peduto administration revealed his 2019 budget blueprint in late September — about a month before the massacre — and submitted the proposal to the Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority. Among highlights in the plan:
Staffing would increase in the bureaus of police, fire and emergency medical services. Overall full-time employment in the police bureau would climb by eight jobs, bringing the total to 1,064. The fire bureau would grow by 11, reaching 670 full-time jobs. EMS would expand by four to 203. The city would have its biggest staffs of police, firefighters, medics and building inspectors in nearly 20 years, Mr. Peduto said.
About $20.3 million would be set aside for street resurfacing — enough to improve about 75 miles of streets. That’s up from about $17 million.
Landslides and slopefailure remediation would be tagged for about $6 million, more than double the amount budgeted for 2018. Flood mitigation would get $3.6 million.
The proposal features a $586.1 million operating budget, up about $12 million over 2018 and supported by nearly $10 million in projected new revenue. Capital spending for 2019 would reach about $132.9 million.
Council has until Dec. 31 to review and finalize the 2019 budget. This cycle marks the first time in about 14 years that Pittsburgh will set a municipal budget without oversight under state Act 47, which guided the city back from the brink of bankruptcy. Pittsburgh emerged from the program in February.
The Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority, a remnant of state oversight, remains in place but ran out of funding earlier in the year. Without funding, the ICA board couldn’t meet to review the city budget proposal, interim executive director G. Reynolds “Renny” Clark said Monday.
As a consequence, the proposal has “deemed approval” under state legislation that authorized the ICA, Mr. Clark said. That doesn’t negate the need for council’s separate review and approval.
The ICA is slated to dissolve automatically in June unless the General Assembly eliminates it sooner. Mr. Peduto’s budget address is scheduled for 10 a.m. Tuesday in council chambers in the City-County Building, Downtown, and will appear on City Channel Pittsburgh (Comcast channel 13; Verizon channel 44).
An online live stream should be available at https://pittsburgh.legistar.com/Calendar.aspx. The mayor’s office has billed his remarks as “State of the City.”