It could have been a deadline-busting budget disaster.
Late last year, a dissatisfied Pittsburgh City Council ripped up parts of the 2026 spending plan submitted by then-Mayor Ed Gainey and inserted a 20% property tax hike.
A Dec. 21 council vote sent the $693 million spending plan to Gainey. He opted to let the budget become law without his signature by the legal deadline — just before the stroke of midnight on Dec. 31.
But there was little wiggle room.
From the moment council votes on a budget, the mayor has 10 days to sign it, veto it, or do nothing. In the latter case, it becomes law following the waiting period.
However, if there weren’t 10 days between the vote and the end of the year, according to council President R. Daniel Lavelle, officials would’ve had to restart the budget process from scratch.
Lavelle on Tuesday proposed a way to avoid that potential pitfall in the future.
It’s all about the timing.
Lavelle, D-Hill District, introduced a ballot referendum asking voters to add language to the city’s Home Rule Charter clarifying the budget becomes law on the first day of the new year if the mayor doesn’t sign or veto it before the end of council’s legislative session.
That eliminates the 10-day buffer council had last year as it hashed out a spending plan that could earn a majority of members’ support and account for all the city’s costs. That budget ultimately included a 20% property tax increase.
Another referendum
Another referendum will ask voters to change the requirement that notice for public hearings — including those on the budget and zoning changes — be advertised in a newspaper of general circulation.
Lavelle said the city’s law department had determined the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette was the appropriate newspaper of general circulation.
Amid news, however, that the Post-Gazette will close in May, Lavelle said, the city needed to change the process.
The referendum will ask voters to clarify that, if no such newspaper exists, that public notice can instead be advertised “via successor media that reasonably ensures public access, including the city’s official website and a digital news publication(s) of general circulation.”
