About 24 hours before Pittsburgh City Council is scheduled to vote on a 2026 budget, council members remained divided on whether to cut services, raise taxes or find a middle ground that combines both approaches.
Council on Sunday will take preliminary and final votes on the tax increase and budget.
Dozens of Pittsburghers offered dueling perspectives during a public hearing Saturday. Some said a tax hike would be worth it if it meant services won’t be slashed. Others said the 30% tax increase officials are contemplating would hurt families struggling to scrape by.
“I’m already living paycheck to paycheck,” said Faith Muse, a Mount Washington resident who urged officials to find a way to balance the budget without raising taxes.
Laura Chu Wiens, of Park Place, said she’d be willing to chip in more in taxes to ensure there’s money for everything from snow plows to housing help for poor residents.
“We know when services are cut that it harms our most vulnerable community members,” she said.
Councilman Khari Mosley, D-Point Breeze, said there is “no consensus” among council members or the public about how to address the city’s financial woes.
Members have to hash out some sort of a deal before they vote on the budget Sunday.
Though they may not agree on how to proceed, all agree they can’t pass the budget as the mayor had proposed it.
Council members are united in the belief that they must fill a roughly $20 million hole in the budget to ensure it allocates enough money for key areas like public safety overtime and utility bills.
Councilwoman Barb Warwick, D-Greenfield, sponsored the proposed 30% tax hike. She on Saturday echoed her belief that the city can’t cut costs to balance the budget. She argued that parks, recreation and senior centers and grants given to nonprofits that try to prevent violent crime are essential services the city must fund.
On Saturday, Warwick said the final tax hike council members will vote on Sunday will likely be lower than the 30% she first suggested.
Several speakers who addressed council members agreed with her stance that paying more in taxes is a fair trade-off for the services Pittsburgh provides.
“We need our city services,” Mel Packer, of Point Breeze, said, adding he believed city workers also deserved pay raises.
Among a plethora of options on the table to address the city’s budget crunch is a proposal to reduce pay raises for non-union workers.
“I don’t have a ton of discretionary funding in my own personal budget, but I am happy to take a 30% tax increase if that means my neighbors and my children can go to the pool in the summer,” Homewood resident Erin Bergen said.
But some residents told council they’d rather see some programs curbed, urging officials to prioritize core city services and avoid a tax hike.
Lifelong Pittsburgher Patrick Stack, of Lincoln Place, said he felt officials were putting non-essential initiatives above “the expectations of the average citizen, the average taxpayer: that someone show up when they call 911, plow our streets, maintain the roads and infrastructure and take out the garbage.”
“These should be priorities before social agendas and special programs,” he said.
Some speakers pointed out that a 30% tax hike could make it hard for seniors on fixed income or low-income families to make ends meet, particularly as utility costs are rising, county taxes jumped by 36% this year and inflation is skyrocketing grocery costs.
Pittsburgh Public Schools officials approved a 2026 budget with a 2% tax increase for next year.
“There are households hanging on by their fingernails that don’t have that extra $5 a week,” Mia Sorada, of East Liberty, said. “Please, do not vote for a 30% tax hike.”
Many residents also urged council to push harder for major nonprofits — including the city’s health care giants and universities — to provide some payment in lieu of taxes, though officials spanning several administrations have struggled to strike such a deal.
“Find somewhere else to get this money,” said Aleita Hermanowski, of Bloomfield.
Another common concern raised Saturday was how much landlords may raise rents in response to a drastic tax hike.
“You are telling poor people, ‘Sorry, pack your bags, move to another neighborhood or get out of the city,’” Friendship resident Kasey Brown said.
Xander Paski, a Strip District landlord, said he feels he won’t have a choice but to pass some costs on to his renters.
“Maintenance and utilities, as well as other expenses, are a larger and larger drain on my bottom line,” he said. “These property taxes are another nail in the coffin.”
Pittsburgh has seen its revenues dip in recent years, as Downtown commercial property values have declined since the pandemic spurred a widespread shift to remote work. Federal covid-19 relief money is drying up. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court recently ruled the city can no longer collect a tax on out-of-town professional athletes and performers.
At the same time, officials are looking to find more money to fund an aging vehicle fleet, tear down blighted buildings and ensure the city can pay its utility bills.
Mayor Ed Gainey in late September introduced a 2026 spending plan that does not propose raising taxes, laying off workers or cutting services.
But City Council members, council’s budget director and the controller have unanimously said Gainey’s budget is unrealistic and fails to adequately account for how much the city will need to spend next year on public safety overtime, utility bills or vehicle maintenance.
Council members are eyeing a variety of solutions to the budget dilemma. Warwick has pitched a tax hike. Council President R. Daniel Lavelle, D-Hill District, asked each department director to analyze where they could cut up to 5% of their budgets — though he said their responses showed just how little there was to trim without severely impacting services.
Officials have also contemplated laying off part-time workers, reducing pay raises for non-union workers or trimming spending on things like the police bureau’s mounted unit.
Some residents credited council members for working through various possibilities before voting on the budget.
Others criticized them for proposing a tax hike at the eleventh hour, just weeks before the Dec. 31 deadline for a budget.
“Residents should not be punished because of the failures of City Hall,” said Russell Dryer, a Bloomfield resident.
Some council members said they can’t support a tax increase. Councilwoman Theresa Kail-Smith, D-West End, said she didn’t want to raise taxes for people who may already be struggling financially, especially if there are more costs the city could slash first.
“You can’t get blood from a rock.”