At a press conference yesterday, the Governor and the Mayor announced that the City of Pittsburgh will continue to be under Act 47 financial distress. That comes in response to the November 2012 report written by the Act 47 coordinators for the City that recommended the City be released and the request earlier this year by the Mayor that the City remain in.
What this means: first, that the City will continue to have two overseers (Act 47 and the oversight board) unless the state ceases the operation of the latter sometime before the City exits Act 47. The City is the only assisted municipality in the state with two overseers. Second, a new recovery plan (which will be the City’s third) will likely be crafted to take into consideration what has happened since 2009 when the second plan was written, and the City proceeded through Act 44 of 2009 and its pension requirements, started an OPEB trust fund, etc. Third, it might be a strong bet that there would be a new Act 47 coordinator going forward since the current ones actually authored the report saying the City should exit Act 47.
