With Pittsburgh's 2021 budget facing $100 million shortfall, city seeks input from residents

Pittsburgh residents have several ways to provide input about the city’s 2021 budget, which will be introduced later this year because of uncertainties surrounding the covid-19 pandemic.

“It is obviously going to be challenging budget year for the city, with estimates of a $100 million shortfall, so we are greatly valuing the public’s input on budget priorities for 2021,” said Tim McNulty, spokesman for Mayor Bill Peduto.

According to the city’s home rule charter, a preliminary spending plan is introduced by Sept. 30, but Peduto and city council have agreed to delay introduction of the budget until November as the city waits to see if federal relief dollars will be coming — something Peduto and others mayors across the county have lobbied for.

But President Donald Trump has been critical of cities, especially those with Democratic mayors like Pittsburgh. Trump has vowed to withhold and/or cut any funding to these cities.

“My administration will not allow federal tax dollars to fund cities that allow themselves to deteriorate into lawless zones,” Trump wrote in a memo as reported last week in The New York Times.

But cities, including Pittsburgh, are at what Peduto called a “critical juncture” as they deal with financial losses associated with the pandemic.

“There will be not be a recovery if our cities are left to die,” Peduto said in a July media call where he joined other mayors in detailing the fiscal woes wrought by covid-19.

The economic strides Pittsburgh has made in the last six years will be erased and $85 million in reserves will be exhausted by the end of the year if federal relief funds aren’t directed to cities, Peduto has said.

City Treasurer Douglas Anderson told council last week that the city might collect $100 million less in revenue this year, advising that council members, the mayor and other city officials be in “constant communication” throughout the budget process.

As part of the outreach to residents for input on the budget, a virtual forum is scheduled for 6 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 16. Staffers from the city’s Office of Management and Budget, Finance Department and Law Department will participate.

To register for the forum, click here. People can also submit input about the budget by visiting the 2021 budget engagement tool online.

This is also the third budget cycle where people can use an online program called Balancing Act to draft their own ideal city budget. The city started offering the tool in 2018, McNulty said.

The operating budget details spending for public safety, garbage collection, snow removal, permits and licenses, maintenance and parks and recreation programs, employee wages and most other city operations.

The 2020 budget, totalling $608 million, can be found here.