Pittsburgh is facing a major budget crisis and will likely turn to property owners to bail it out.

Saying Ed Gainey’s administration has saddled them with an unrealistic budget, Pittsburgh City Council members say they will likely need to raise taxes for the first time in 12 years. Council members say the tax hike seems inevitable.

“It’s like political suicide, right, to raise taxes,” Councilwoman Erika Strassburger said. “Everyone’s going to be mad at you.”

Though faced with an end of federal COVID-19 funding and plummeting building valuations, the Gainey administration has called for no tax increase, presenting a budget that underfunds the decaying city fleet and runaway overtime in the understaffed police and EMS bureaus. 

“We’re in a budget crisis now,” Strassburger said. “Now is the time that we have to solve for next year.”

Over the next two months, the council will need to close a funding gap it estimates at $30 million. In the first of many hearings, Pittsburgh City Controller Rachael Heisler told them they’ll have to make significant cuts in departments across the board, but will also need to come up with new revenue, most likely from a real estate tax increase.

“This current budget will not get to balance without additional revenue next year,” Heisler said.

Though they would hope additional money could come from the city’s non-profit hospitals and universities, an agreement for payments instead of taxes does not appear to be imminent.

“A tax increase has to remain on the table,” Strassburger said.

And saying the city can’t cut its way to a balanced budget, Councilwoman Barb Warwick says she’s preparing a bill that would raise the property mileage rate – though she hasn’t determined by how much.

“When we talk about cuts, it’s important to remember that means cuts to the services that we provide the people of Pittsburgh,” she said. “Whether that’s making sure the ambulance gets to your house quickly, whether that’s making sure your street gets paved or making sure the pools are full.”

Council members say the budget presented to them is a fantasy. And over the next two months, they must come up with a balanced one. To get there, they’ll almost certainly be asking residents to open up their wallets.

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