Shall Article III, Subsection 7(c) of Allegheny County’s Home Rule Charter be repealed in order to remove restrictions on County Council members’ ability to receive County funding for personal staff, district offices, and fringe benefits?
That’s the ballot question that goes before voters on Nov. 3. Supporters – predominantly council members – argue that the changes are needed to better hold the chief executive to account and better serve their constituents.
Never mind that adoption could be the first slide down a slippery slope in upending one of the original – and hallmark — intents of the charter that went into effect nearly 27 years ago. That being a new form of government featuring a strong chief executive and a part-time citizen council of reviewers and advisors, never designed to be a co-equal branch of county government.
And “could” is the operative word here.
As a WESA-FM report reminds:
“A ‘yes’ vote would not automatically give members these benefits — they’d still have to vote for them separately, following the procedure they use with any other bill. But removing the charter prohibition would for the first time make it possible for them to do so.
“The impact of a ‘yes’ vote would be limited in another way: A separate provision of the county charter limits council’s budget to 0.4% of revenues from the county’s property tax. That language is unaffected by this ballot question, and adjusting it would require voters to pass a separate proposal.
“In 2026, that cap limited council to spending $1.1 million out of a total budget of more than $1 billion,” the radio station reports.
Thus, charter originalists, and we count ourselves among them, can take some comfort in knowing that County Council members supporting such an intemperate change would have to go the on record in voting themselves such perks as taxpayer-funded health insurance and pensions (in a time in which the county pension system is a wreck). And a separate ballot issue would have to go before voters for the council to secure any funds above the budget cap percentage to pay for it all.
But, sad to say, those all too willing to plant their thumbs to their noses, wriggle their fingers and blow raspberries to the charter’s founding intent likely never will relent in their attempts to turn public service – and the personal sacrifices that come with it – into self-service, if not self-dealing.
Colin McNickle is communications and marketing director at the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy (cmcnickle@alleghenyinstitute.org).
