Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey on Tuesday used his annual budget address to applaud his administration’s efforts to improve core city services, make bridges safer, respond faster to snowstorms and revitalize a Downtown that has seen increasing vacancies since the covid-19 pandemic.

The mayor told City Council his proposed budget for 2025 — which includes no tax hikes, a modest reduction in spending and no layoffs — will help him continue that work.

“The state of our city is strong,” Gainey said. “For the past three years, my administration has been working hard to rebuild city government as we emerge from a dual crisis of financial distress and the covid-19 pandemic.”

Echoing a narrative Gainey has repeated throughout his administration, the mayor painted his administration as one looking to get the city back on track after a pandemic and years of disinvestment.

When he took office, Gainey said, the city didn’t have enough staff or equipment to respond to snow storms. The Fern Hollow Bridge collapsed during Gainey’s first month in office because of years of neglect. And covid-19 had spurred a widespread shift to remote work that increased vacancies in Downtown offices and decreased property values in the Golden Triangle.

The mayor highlighted his efforts over the past three years to better core city services, rebuild the Fern Hollow Bridge, invest in bridge maintenance, buy new snowplows, improve staffing in the Department of Public Works and expand traffic calming measures.

“The budget I am proposing today will continue to build on these successes,” he said.

At least one council member was not impressed with Gainey’s budget address. Bob Charland, who represents the South Side, criticized the mayor’s proposal for focusing on the past instead of looking to the future.

“Mayor Gainey must have thought his campaign announcement did not get enough attention because that is the only reason why, in a yearly budget address, we’re hearing about initiatives from years ago like the rental registry passed in 2015 and the federal government replacing the Fern Hollow Bridge in 2022,” Charland said.

“I didn’t hear anything about how we’re going to clean up the city or find solutions for homelessness in 2025.”

Gainey in August launched his reelection campaign.

Slight changes

Gainey introduced an updated operating budget proposal that would trim spending next year by about 3% compared with 2024.

His current proposal would include $665 million in operating expenditures next year, up from the $657 million he had pitched in his preliminary budget in September, but down from the nearly $686 million the city is budgeted to spend this year.

The mayor’s capital budget – which funds longer-term investments – now calls for just under $120 million in spending next year, up from the $117 million he had proposed in a first draft of the 2025 budget.

Jake Pawlak, director of the Office of Management and Budget, said the mayor’s proposal remains largely unchanged since his initial draft in September. Most changes, he said, are minor.

The mayor’s budget address kicked off a weekslong public process. City Council on Wednesday will begin a series of hearings involving each city department and members of the public.

Public safety

Next year, Gainey said, the city will implement a $1.2 million automated red light enforcement program in an effort to make streets safer, create eight new anti-litter inspector jobs to make the city cleaner and invest over $20 million on road paving, more than $3 million more than this year.

“Our mission remains the same,” Gainey said. “We will always promote and protect the public good through excellent and equitable services for every resident and visitor in our city.”

Though some officials have criticized Gainey for slashing the budgeted size of the city’s police bureau, the mayor praised his administration’s ability to negotiate a new police contract and revise standards for imposing discipline.

His efforts to hire more civilians in the bureau, Gainey said, allows uniformed officers to focus on areas where they’re needed most.

Gainey has proposed to hire additional civilians next year to manage property and evidence and man the desks at police bureau offices to return more officers to the streets.

The mayor’s 2025 budget proposal looks to reduce the number of uniformed officers in the bureau to 800, down from the 850 budgeted for this year – and down from the 900 most officials agree is the force’s ideal number.

Currently, the city has about 750 officers, as Pittsburgh has struggled to keep the force properly staffed.

Some officials have raised questions about Gainey’s initial proposal to also reduce the amount of money budgeted next year for overtime hours for police and firefighters. The police bureau last year spent more than $19.5 million in overtime, and officials expect the bureau to spend $1 million or $2 million more than the $17 million budgeted this year.

But Gainey is proposing to, next year, reduce overtime funding for police to $15 million.

The mayor initially proposed to also reduce overtime funding for the city’s fire bureau to about $15 million. On Tuesday, the mayor’s updated budget boosted that to $16.5 million next year, closer to the $17 million budgeted this year.

Gainey highlighted his administration’s expansion of police recruiting classes and community outreach through the Office of Community Health and Safety.

The city this year also launched for the first time an in-house training academy for new EMTs.

Pawlak said the budget currently includes no funding for a large-scale national search to find a permanent replacement for former police Chief Larry Scirotto.

Scirotto resigned Nov. 1 amid controversy over his plan to return to refereeing college basketball while leading the police force.

Pawlak said the mayor has not made any decisions yet about a new permanent chief. Christopher Ragland, formerly an assistant chief, is currently serving as acting chief.

Revised revenues

Gainey’s updated budget also shows an increase in revenue projections. In September, his 2025 budget suggested revenues would reach just under $661 million.

Tuesday, he raised that prediction to over $668 million.

Controller Rachael Heisler certified Gainey’s updated revenue projections, which, she said, were based on revised figures for charges for services, licenses and permits and intergovernmental revenues.

Heisler said the improved revenue projections are reasonable, but she voiced concerns that continued shrinking of Pittsburgh’s population could cause earned income tax revenue to drop, and an ongoing legal battle over the facility usage fee – a tax on out-of-town professional athletes and performers – could cause the city to lose that revenue stream altogether.

“Accounting for every dollar in both revenues and expenditures is necessary in this tight financial period,” Heisler wrote in a letter to City Council’s Finance Chair Erika Strassburger, D-Squirrel Hill.

Officials have raised concerns about the city’s declining revenues as Downtown property values plummet and federal covid-19 relief funds dry up.

The mayor acknowledged the city will need to curb spending on pricey new capital projects over the next couple of years as the city’s finances struggle. But the mayor continued Tuesday trying to quell concerns about Pittsburgh’s fiscal health.

“Two tough years will not stop us from continuing our mission of rebuilding your government and making it deliver for you,” he said. “I have every confidence in our ability to weather this unsettled period.”

Gainey said his administration has been rebuilding city government “from the ground up” and tackling the unique challenges that have plagued the city.

“We needed to make government work,” Gainey said. “We needed to make it work for everyone, particularly for people who historically have been left behind and left out.”

One example of getting the city back on track, Gainey said, is resuming an in-person permitting counter with the Department of Permits, Licenses and Inspections Downtown next week.

“This will mark the first time the city has accepted permit applications in person since the beginning of [the] covid-19 pandemic,” he said.

Full enforcement of the city’s rental registry – which aims to improve renter safety by mandating inspections of rental units – is set to begin in June of next year, Gainey said.

The city’s land bank, he said, has also started moving properties under his administration.

More than 150 properties have been sold or are pending sale since he took office, though the land bank hadn’t sold a single property before then from the time it was created in 2014.

The land bank allows the city to sell blighted, vacant publicly owned properties to specific buyers who can use them for a variety of purposes, like urban gardens or affordable housing.

Gainey also highlighted efforts to revitalize a former slag heap in the city’s East End as a solar farm and to launch a $6 million comprehensive plan that officials have indicated could streamline neighborhood planning and create a new land-use plan for Pittsburgh.

Focus on Downtown

Gainey said revitalizing Downtown has been a top priority of his administration.

Though Downtown property values have continued to slip, the mayor pointed to an ambassadors program the city launched in partnership with the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership, projects converting empty offices into housing and recent efforts to bolster public safety in the Golden Triangle as recent successes for the area.

Gov. Josh Shapiro last month unveiled a $600 million revitalization plan for Downtown.

During an address that lasted more than an hour, Gainey promised to continue working to increase affordable housing options throughout the city.

His administration teamed up with the city’s Urban Redevelopment Authority on a $31.6 million bond issue — which will cost the city $62.5 million over the next 25 years — to build and preserve housing affordable for low-income residents.

Gainey said his proposed zoning overhaul — which would legalize accessory dwelling units, reduce minimum lot size requirements and encourage transit-oriented development — could also help the city meet housing demands.

His zoning proposal also would require developers to designate at least 10% of housing units at any new development with at least 20 units as affordable housing.

Though Gainey struck an optimistic tone through much of his speech, the mayor acknowledged concerns about the city’s finances and broader concerns about Donald Trump’s return to the White House.

“Pittsburgh, even though our country is on the brink of an enormous transition and there are likely challenging times ahead, I am confident the future of our city is bright,” Gainey said.

Copyright ©2025— Trib Total Media, LLC (TribLIVE.com)