PITTSBURGH \u2014 Pittsburgh City Council approved a 20% real estate tax hike on Sunday in an effort to remedy a roughly $20 million budget deficit.<\/p>\n
In a rare weekend session, council voted 6-2 to approve the tax increase, which would be the city\u2019s first in more than a decade.<\/p>\n
Council members we spoke with call the 20% tax increase a compromise from the original proposed rate.<\/p>\n
Altogether, members passed a spending plan of more than $693 million.<\/p>\n
Councilperson Barb Warwick voted in favor of the scaled-down increase from the 30% she initially proposed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am absolutely comfortable with the 20% and also consider all the additional savings,\u201d Warwick said.<\/p>\n
Those savings, she says, amount to at least $1.5 million in cuts from finding savings from the police department\u2019s overtime pay to adjusting the city\u2019s violence prevention program.<\/p>\n
Next year, the Stop the Violence program will have only $5 million in its account, instead of the usual $10 million. The council-approved amount will be spent only after existing money runs out, Warwick said.<\/p>\n
Outgoing Councilperson Theresa Kail-Smith was one of the two who voted against the tax increase. She believes families will be burdened.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey just had a significant increase on the county level, they have an increase on the Pittsburgh Public School level, and now the city level,\u201d Kail-Smith said.<\/p>\n
A statement from Mayor Ed Gainey\u2019s office reads in part, \u201cAs the process moves forward, the Mayor will thoughtfully evaluate the decisions made by City Council today, particularly in light of the significant tax increase and numerous modifications to planned spending that were approved.\u201d<\/p>\n
The mayor now has ten days to decide whether to veto, approve or take no action on the measure.<\/p>\n
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