Our current Brief talks about how the City of Pittsburgh had to request a related authority to increase parking rates at its properties so that could in turn deliver more revenue to the City via its parking tax, which it cannot raise directly. Perhaps the last tax that the City has direct control over is the property tax, and that tax was raised for 2015 by a half of a mill (7.56 to 8.06).
As of July current property taxes total $122.4 million, about $15 million above where collections for current year taxes were in July of 2014. As of now about 95% of the 2015 current year budget ($128 million) has been collected. The recommendation to boost the millage rate came from the 2014 Act 47 plan, and the goal of the hike was to “…current year real estate taxes generate $128.1 million in 2015”. The delinquent and penalties and interest should bring total property tax collections to $133 million this year based on the budgeted amount.
