On March 12, the mayor of Pittsburgh held a press conference to announce that the 2026 operating budget—passed by City Council but not signed by the former mayor—will be reopened to address issues the administration sees with health care (active and retired workers), fuel, bridge repairs, lawsuits and union contracts.
The 2025 fourth quarter report (which is unaudited) shows last year ended with an $8.6 million deficit instead of the $3 million surplus in the adopted budget. While the approved five-year forecast in the budget shows a fund balance of $127 million (17.5 percent of $727 million in spending) at the end of 2030, the mayor says it will be $84 million (11.5 percent of spending).
The mayor is initiating the budget reopening but there will likely be legislation to carry out the changes. The Home Rule Charter states “Council may amend by resolution the operating budget within five weeks after the close of the fiscal year, but not thereafter except with the approval of the mayor. Council at all times may by resolution transfer funds from one code account to another if the total budget amount is not exceeded. The operating budget shall, in any event, remain balanced at all times.”
The mayor said taxes won’t go up, city workers won’t be laid off and city services won’t be cut, but, somehow, savings will be achieved.
“We didn’t get into this position in a year, and we won’t solve it in a year. This is going to take responsible financial decisions over the next several years to get us back on track. I will work with City Council to focus on getting back to basics and delivering core services,” notes the press release summarizing the conference.
As the Allegheny Institute wrote at the start of 2026, the recommendations for the mayor in regards to a hiring freeze, examining all departments for efficiencies, outsourcing non-core functions, getting a Taxpayer Bill of Rights into the charter and opposing anti-business measures and incentives for specific businesses would be very useful and are long overdue.
