Almost four years ago we wrote a Brief on the City’s direct and overlapping debt in 2011 (the last audited year available at the time) and compared it to 2001. Though authorities figured into that share (City Parking, City Stadium, and City Urban Redevelopment at 100%, 100%, and 61% and the City-County Auditorium [SEA] Authority for 50%), the Water and Sewer Authority has always been treated in the City’s financials as different (CAFRs note “direct obligations of the [PWSA] are not considered debt of the City of Pittsburgh”) and is considered a “component unit”.
The most recent audited financial report for the City shows $701 million in PWSA debt, and an article today stated that currently the debt is $750 million and traces that to financial decisions made in 2007 (a slide in this presentation by the Mayor shows debt levels back to 2000 and separates out the interest rate swap effect from 2010 forward but even without that borrowed debt from 2013 on has topped $700 million). Based on the City’s financial books the PWSA was already carrying $590 million in debt in 2005 (again, none of that debt attributed to the City) and ten years later it stood at $701 million, which was an increase of 20%,
But from 1995–the year when the City water system and water employees were transferred to the PWSA under the capital lease and cooperation agreement–PWSA debt was $437 million, meaning from 1995 to 2005 debt grew 35%. And a look back through the City’s financials on direct and overlapping debt shows that the first entry for the PWSA (which was created in 1984) was in 1991, with a debt of $248 million. That means from 1991 to 1995 debt increased 76%.
Long story short, in 2015 with the computation of direct and overlapping debt for City taxpayers, taking into consideration shares attributable to the City, a $2.4 billion debt outstanding falls to $1.1 billion.
