It was four years ago that the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy recommended five actions for the incoming Pittsburgh mayor and City Council. It’s a practice that dates back 20 years.
But, unfortunately, many of the 2021 recommendations never saw the light of day. And just as unfortunately, other, worse, policies have been proposed and/or implemented.
Five policy suggestions were made four years ago: Institute a hiring freeze; examine all departments and offices for increased efficiencies; outsource non-core functions; push for the inclusion of a Taxpayer Bill of Rights in the Home Rule Charter; and end support of anti-business measures and subsidies for specific businesses.
But as Eric Montarti, the think tank’s research director, and Alex Sodini, a research associate there, note , Pittsburgh’s reform record has been spotty at best over the past four years.
No hiring freeze was implemented. “Pittsburgh has long exceeded the Benchmark City when measured on an employee per 1,000 resident basis,” the researchers remind.
In fact, the “full-time employee count from Jan. 13, 2023, to Dec. 27, 2024 — which covers two full budget years for the current administration — rose by 192 employees,” Montarti and Sodini say.
When it comes to seeking greater efficiencies, the institute researchers say the closest to a major study to identify such things “was likely the one on police staffing.”
And the very word “efficiency” was “met with significant concerns regarding the waiver of a competitive bid process … . There was also a contracted study on information technology staffing,” Montarti and Sodini note.
But here’s their bottom-line questions: “Are employees being asked for cost-saving ideas? If so, have any been implemented?”
Then there’s outsourcing of non-core functions, to the private sector, the county or to an authority. While there has been a budgeted rise in civilian Police Bureau employees (by 22 over two years, from 2022 to 2025), there has been a significant drop in uniformed employees (from 900 to 800 over the same two years).
But there’s yet to be any outsourcing of garbage collection, which many municipalities have done for years, Montarti and Sodini remind. And Pittsburgh voters will be asked next month to amend the city’s Home Rule Charter, effectively poison-pilling any lease and/or sale of the city’s long-troubled water and sewer system to any private entity.
That clearly “goes against the goal of outsourcing functions,” the researchers say.
And there has been no push for a Taxpayer Bill of Rights in the charter. It would require that “general fund expenditures shall increase no more than the rate of inflation, that any surplus tax collection above and beyond the amount necessary to meet general fund expenditures shall be returned to the taxpayers of the City of Pittsburgh and that each city department, agency, authority and function is subject to periodic sunset review to determine the necessity of continuing said department, agency, authority or function,” Montarti and Sodini say.
Additionally, it would prevent tax rate increases without a three-fourths vote of City Council or by referendum, preferably the latter, they note.
And, last but not least, and it should be a no-brainer, is stopping support of anti-business measures and subsidizing specific private businesses.
Before, as now, “We recommended the mayor oppose any measure that seeks to impose a stricter regulatory environment on businesses, oppose using city-based incentives for favored businesses and to look closely at zoning, planning and permitting processes to see if those are streamlined and friendly to business and, if not, initiate changes to make the processes friendlier and less costly,” Montarti and Sodini stress.
Three examples of how not to implement such policies come in the drive to expand “affordable housing/inclusionary zoning mandates” citywide, diverting select tax receipts to the private “Esplanade” project and using public dollars to support next year’s NFL Draft in Pittsburgh. Additionally, a proposed ordinance to reduce the minimum lot size as part of zoning reform is scheduled for a public hearing this week.
The think tank’s five timeless recommendations “provide practical steps to move Pittsburgh from a path of stagnation to sustainable economic growth,” Montarti and Sodini conclude. “An expansive public sector, burdensome regulatory climate and oppressive tax environment are all antithetical to a successful future for Pittsburgh.”