In a unanimous vote, the Senate has approved legislation that will make changes to the statute that created the oversight board for Pittsburgh, Act 11 of 2004.  The legislation now heads to the House of Representatives.

We have written plenty on the oversight board since its creation twelve years ago, and the legislation addresses two topics we have covered in recent years.

1. The Life Span of the ICA:   We wrote in 2010 about the term of existence of the oversight board, which is contained in Section 204 of the statute.  That section says that after seven years, if there were three consecutive budget and five-year plan approvals by the board, then the Secretary of DCED would certify that the ICA could be dissolved.  Under the proposed legislation, there is new language placing a limitation on dissolving the ICA.  It must be in place until either the Act 47 distressed status for Pittsburgh is removed, or June 30, 2019, whichever comes later.  Language in Act 222 of 2004 prohibits cities of the second class (Pittsburgh) from raising its earned income tax to fall on non-residents (a commuter tax) so long as the oversight board is in existence.  In addition, the state amended Act 47 in 2014 to place time limits on how long municipalities could remain in distressed status, so it is a real possibility that Pittsburgh could be out of Act 47 and ICA oversight in three years.

2. Audit Reports–This year we wrote that the ICA had not filed audits required under Section 207 of the statute with legislative committees or the PA Bulletin.  The proposed legislation stipulates that those reports–non-existent up to this point, presumably–will have to be filed with the appropriate committees by December 31st following the conclusion of the fiscal year, which for the ICA runs the same as the state and, for the 2015-16 year, ends tomorrow.