Inside Mayor Ed Gainey’s preliminary $672M 2025 budget plan for Pittsburgh

PITTSBURGH — Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey released his preliminary 2025 budget plan on Monday.

The plan consists of separate capital and operating budgets for the next five fiscal years. The budget works to address revenue shortfalls caused in part by the loss of American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding, which expires this year.

“What you’ll see there is a very sparing approach to adding new projects. Only where we’ve identified really critical needs over the course of the year,” Jake Pawlak, deputy mayor, said in a virtual news conference Monday.

One of the ways Gainey proposes to address the shrinking revenue is through reducing the overall budget for city employees. The city’s chief finance officer said, ultimately, the positions even out when compared to what the city is actually using.

“Some of it depends, department by department,” Patrick Cornell, city chief financial officer said. “For example, and Public Works director [Chris] Hornstein took a high-level look at all of the bureaus within the Department of Public Works. He saw where there were some vacant positions that had not been filled that maybe had been difficult to fill. And from there, he thought it best to work with OMB, to work with the mayor, to pivot those into positions that would fill greater needs.”

The mayor’s budget proposal also alters what it considers full staffing for police officers. The proposal calls for 800 full-time officers for 2025, compared to the 2024 budget of 850 and the 2023 budget of 900.

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11 Investigates has previously reported on hiring challenges faced by the City of Pittsburgh, including attrition through retirements, resignations and movement outside city limits.

As 11 Investigates exclusively reported last year, the city set a record for resignations over the course of 2023.

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“It’s our objective to have the right number of officers to complete the job for city residents,” Pawlak said.

Pawlak said the city currently employs 750 officers. Gainey’s budget proposal looks to expand the role civilians play in the city’s police department to keep officers out in the city, rather than handling administrative tasks.

“We’re growing our investment in the police bureau through civilian positions,” Pawlak said.

In addition to a reduced total number of officers, the plan calls for $1.2 million to cover the newly approved red light enforcement program.

In the area of infrastructure, the mayor’s office plans to maintain its bridge maintenance and traffic calming measures.

“We’ve been able to continue to fund our bridge maintenance work even in the absence of ARPA funds and to continue to robustly fund demolitions,” Pawlak said.

This year 11 Investigates exclusively uncovered the city had only demolished six buildings in 2024. 11 Investigates found the city issued 33 permits for city-funded demolitions in 2020, 92 in 2021, 112 in 2022 and 105 in 2023.

RELATED COVERAGE >>> Demolitions lag as vacant buildings plague Pittsburgh

The city’s director of permits, licensing and inspections told 11 Investigates the challenge was how the 2024 budget was structured, with two thirds of the money coming from a federal grant.

The 2025 budget would increase the demolition budget by $1.8 million. While some of the increase is expected to come through block grants, Gainey’s proposal would increase the share of the general fund by $1.4 million in 2025. However, the overall demolition budget would alternate decreases and increases — depending on the year.

Gainey is expected to formally present the budget in November, and a final budget would need to be voted on by the city council.

You can see the budget proposals in the below PDFs.

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