Pittsburgh City Council continues to hammer out 2026 budget as vote deadline nears

Pittsburgh City Council members failed Thursday to hash out all their differences over the 2026 budget they’ll vote on this weekend and temporarily left unanswered the biggest question: Will there be a tax hike?

In a daylong meeting, council spent hours debating preliminary votes on dozens of amendments to the no-tax budget submitted by outgoing Mayor Ed Gainey.

Members agreed on some items and split their votes on others.

But a proposal by Greenfield Councilwoman Barb Warwick to raise property taxes by 30% was an obvious elephant in the room, one not discussed in detail.

That conversation will take place Sunday in a sprint of eleventh-hour sausage-making just before council votes.

The city’s Home Rule Charter mandates a balanced budget by the end of the year.

Some council members support a tax increase — though many seem to think it should be smaller than 30% — while others want to see the city cut spending instead. Others believe a mix of the two is the best option.

Council Budget Director Peter McDevitt on Thursday said budget options remain fluid.

“We’re building the plane as we’re flying it,” he said.

Additional changes could be proposed Sunday, when anything council voted for on Thursday will be subject to two more votes.

Councilwoman Theresa Kail-Smith of the West End, abstained Thursday on nearly all votes, saying she needed a better understanding of how specific changes would impact the budget more broadly.

Many acknowledged the decisions they’ll be forced to make in the coming days — like whether to axe the police mounted unit, shred the budget for computers or sideline seasonal workers who clean up blighted properties — will be difficult and painful.

“Are we cutting meat and bones, and not cutting fat?” Councilwoman Deb Gross, D-Highland Park, asked as officials contemplated cuts that would halve the number of blighted properties the city could clean next year. “It doesn’t look like fat.”

Nuts and bolts

Council President R. Daniel Lavelle, D-Hill District, proposed cutting in half the annual $10 million allocation to the Stop the Violence fund, which pays for the Office of Community Health and Safety and provides grants to local nonprofits that work to curb violent crime.

The program would not reduce its work but would draw on existing money sitting in the fund unspent.

With the $5 million saved from reducing funding to that initiative next year, Lavelle suggested adding $1 million to an Urban Redevelopment Authority fund for small businesses and $4 million to the budget to buy new vehicles, like ambulances, snow plows or fire trucks.

Meanwhile, Warwick pitched adding $10 million more to the vehicle fleet on top of the $10 million already allocated under Gainey’s plan. She is pushing for a tax hike to help fund the extra investment.

City officials agree that — if they had the money for it — they should invest at least $20 million in the fleet annually.

No one disputes the decrepit, breakdown-prone fleet needs serious upgrades. But whether the city can afford it — and whether officials should hike taxes to fund it — is up for debate.

“As we have seen just in the last few days with the snow situation, investing in the fleet is urgent,” Warwick said, referring to the city’s struggles to treat streets as plows broke down responding to a recent winter storm.

Councilman Anthony Coghill, D-Beechview, has long been a staunch advocate of bolstering the fleet. But he abstained from voting to earmark extra cash for it.

“I do feel, in voting for this, it kind of puts us in a box where we’re almost forced to raise taxes at that point,” he said. “And I haven’t come to terms with that yet.”

Squirrel Hill Councilwoman Erika Strassburger and Lavelle suggested a number of amendments including reducing pay increases for non-union workers, cutting seasonal Department of Public Works employees and yanking money for conferences, training and computers — to free up cash for utility bills and overtime for fire and EMS personnel.

Public safety and utility bills, many officials have argued, were underfunded in Gainey’s initial budget proposal.

Strassburger and Lavelle proposed an extra $8 million for EMS and fire overtime next year, plus an additional $6.5 million for utility bills. Strassburger said that would bring the budget to an “accurate reflection” of how much the city will likely spend in those areas next year.

Double whammy?

Council members seemed particularly reluctant as they grappled with a proposal to reduce the annual pay increase for non-union workers — including council members and their staff — to 2% from 3%. That would save the city less than $560,000 next year.

“Our city employees, they work really, really hard, and they work for a lot less money, many of them, than they would make in the private sector,” Warwick said.

Gross worried the move could spur some city workers to leave for the private sector, particularly as inflation has outpaced their pay increases in recent years already.

“There’s going to be a lot of pain that’s felt by a lot of people,” Strassburger said. “The idea being that we have to sort of apply that equally.”

Strassburger acknowledged potentially raising taxes while limiting pay increases was a “double whammy” to Pittsburgh’s workforce.

She and Lavelle were the only members to support the notion Thursday. Others abstained or voted against it.

Council in a preliminary vote supported defunding the police mounted unit — again. They also voted to cut its funding last year, but the city never actually scrapped it.

“We made a decision last year,” Warwick said. “But it didn’t happen, and that is somewhat frustrating. Decisions get made at the table, and those really should be the decisions that are implemented by the administration.”

Cutting costs associated with the mounted unit would save the city about $140,000 next year.

Kail-Smith blasted the idea.

“I think it’s short-sighted,” she said, adding the horses could be helpful for crowd control during major events like the 2026 NFL Draft.

Council on Saturday will host a public hearing on the budget and proposed 30% tax increase. Then they will take preliminary and final votes Sunday.