Questions persist about how Pittsburgh officials should allocate the money collected through its parks tax.

The 0.5-mill tax — or $50 per $100,000 of a property’s assessed value — was first collected in 2021 after it was narrowly approved by voters in a 2019 ballot referendum. The tax is meant to provide supplemental funding for the city’s parks. Local officials and city residents have expressed varying opinions on how exactly the money should be spent.

City Controller Michael Lamb this week released a report that further questions how officials are prioritizing what types of park projects should benefit from the extra cash.

“We heard a lot about equity in the campaign for the parks tax, but it’s hard to look at how the funds have been spent so far and say the city has been living up to those promises,” Lamb said. “We have a real opportunity to come together and make the parks tax work for neighborhoods that have seen the most disinvestment.”

The report suggested the city should determine criteria that would prioritize parks based on areas that have the highest level of need, parks located in racially or ethnically concentrated areas of poverty, parks in low-income areas and parks located in neighborhoods with high populations of seniors or youth.

The Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy, which advocated for the parks tax, has also created a priority list.

Lamb’s report showed many of the projects that have seen parks tax allocations have not aligned with the priorities the controller’s office or the conservancy had outlined.

“Whether it’s better health outcomes, lower crime, or higher property values, we know the benefits that well-maintained parks have on our communities and our neighbors,” Lamb said. “With the right spending guidelines in place, we can revitalize parks in the worst disrepair, reduce inequities in the delivery of city services and bring a world-class park system to all of our residents.”

Maria Montaño, a spokesperson for Mayor Ed Gainey, said the administration is “in the process of reviewing the controller’s audit.”

She could not immediately say how the administration prioritizes the spending for parks.

City Council President Theresa Kail-Smith said she was looking through the controller’s recommendations “to see what council can do on our end. … It absolutely has an effect on the safety in our communities and gives kids an avenue to go to places to play that are safe.”

During last year’s budget negotiations, Kail-Smith was one of several council members who questioned the administration’s proposal to use parks tax money to buy vehicles and equipment for the Department of Public Works. The city allocated $1.6 million in parks tax dollars for vehicles last year.

“When the tax was proposed to people, it was not proposed that we were going to use it for equipment, vehicles, that sort of thing,” Kail-Smith said. “The way it was pitched to the community was it was going to go towards the actual parks improvements.”

The mayor’s 2024 budget proposals include parks tax money paying for a Department of Public Works car and six dump trucks. The proposal would spend $716,400 in parks tax money in the upcoming year on vehicles.

Montaño said the mayor’s office believes this is appropriate spending.

“If we don’t have the vehicles to do the work, we can’t do the work,” she said. “That’s one of the ways we’re able to invest in our parks.”

Lamb’s report questioned the parks tax money being spent on “several items considered to be inconsistent with the goal of building community equity.” Examples of that, he said, include buying vehicles and investing $1.3 million to repair the Schenley Park Ice Rink refrigeration system, which also receives separate county funding.

The Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy in a statement said the nonprofit’s partnership with the city “grew stronger” as the entities collaborated on the first parks tax-funded project led by the conservancy over the last year. The conservancy used parks tax money for a project restoring the North Promenade in Allegheny Commons Park on the North Side. The project is slated to be completed by the end of the year.

The conservancy is reviewing Lamb’s report and “welcomes the opportunity to continue working with our city partners to maximize the parks trust fund and invest in communities that need our support the most,” the nonprofit said in a statement.

As part of the 2024 budget process, the conservancy requested over $1.36 million from the parks tax trust fund for four projects.

Their request includes $330,000 to support the construction of a “community grove” with benches and space for youth organizations to host events in McKinley Park; $703,000 to fund resurfacing pathways, installing lights and enhancing park entrances at Mellon Park; $200,000 to build an ADA-accessible, sensory-friendly space for children with physical or cognitive disabilities in Frick Park; and $130,080 to rehabilitate the 1940s-era Valley Refuge Shelter in Riverview Park.

City Council will review the proposed 2024 parks tax allocations during its budget process, which formally kicks off with the mayor introducing his budget proposals later this month.

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