O'Connor's administration says steps needed to avoid budget crisis in Pittsburgh

Mayor Corey O'Connor's administration says steps are needed to avoid a budget crisis in Pittsburgh, and he plans to announce that he is ready to reopen the city budget to make serious cuts.

Just before Christmas, the Pittsburgh City Council voted to increase property taxes by 20 percent, but the O'Connor administration believes the city is still in financial trouble and a thousand cuts are needed to avoid layoffs and future tax increases.  

As it turns out, the tax increase didn't stop the bleeding. Even with an extra $27 million in new revenues, the city is still operating at a deficit. The O'Connor administration believes the former administration underfunded and under-estimated costs. Now, O'Connor has scheduled a press conference for Thursday to reopen the budget and begin making the necessary cuts.  

"Trust broke down with the past administration," Pittsburgh City Councilman Bobby Wilson said on Wednesday. "I'm appreciative this mayor is taking this seriously, the financial situation we're in."

Earlier this month, Pittsburgh City Controller Rachael Heisler raised the alarm, saying that while Ed Gainey's administration anticipated a $3 million surplus, it ended last year with an $8 million deficit. Heisler says in the long term, the city needs to grow and encourage business and development, but needs to do some serious belt-tightening in the short term. 

"We're in a position where we need forces very seriously on cost containment," Heisler said. "We need to focus very directly on economic growth, and we need to be very strategic about where we're spending money."

The mayor's office is declining comment until Thursday's press conference, but will cite the prior administration for underfunding things like retiree health benefits and other debts running in the millions. 

The goal is to avoid layoffs and future tax increases by making cuts to contracts and bond issues. The city will continue to hire more police, but not fill other positions in the budget. Wilson says the council will need to go over the spending with a fine-tooth comb.   

"I'm looking to see how this mayor, Mayor O'Connor, shows leadership to really buckle down and do the right thing," Wilson said on Wednesday. 

Before leaving office, the Gainey administration denied underfunding the budget, but former Deputy Mayor Jake Pawlak says he will reserve comment until after the mayor's presentation on Thursday.