Allegheny County’s acting Controller Amy Weise Clements warns that the county’s recent property tax increase has provided only temporary financial relief and that rising costs, the end of federal pandemic aid and continued spending growth could make it difficult to balance a budget in the years ahead.
In the controller’s 2025 Popular Annual Financial Report released Monday, Weise Clements said the county faces “considerable fiscal concerns” despite the 36% property tax increase approved for 2025, which generated an additional $132 million in revenue.
“Stability and growth will be key to reestablishing the county’s financial footing, but belt-tightening is also likely to be necessary,” Weise Clements said in the report.
In 2024, the county raised property taxes for the first time in more than a decade.
The increase capped one of the most contentious debates of the 2025 budget season, with county officials clashing over competing tax proposals before County Council settled on a 36% increase that raised the millage rate from 4.73 mills to 6.43 mills.
The compromise meant no county employees were laid off and the county’s public safety, public works and human services departments remained fully funded.
In December, council unanimously approved a $3 billion budget without raising taxes or laying off workers. However, Weise Clements said Monday that county spending is projected to increase by approximately $40 million in 2026.
Weise said the county will break even in 2026.
2025 Financial Status
According to the report, the Department of Human Services and the Allegheny County Jail have accounted for more than $100 million in spending increases since 2019.
Weise said the two departments collectively need to trim $30 million in spending by 2027.
“Curtailing this cost growth without diminishing services is challenging but not impossible. These departments must explore moving functions in-house that are currently contracted at continually escalating cost,” Weise Clements said.
Federal American Rescue Plan funds helped offset spending pressures in recent years. Allegheny County received nearly $381 million through the American Rescue Plan Act in 2021 and 2022, and those funds covered significant expenses at the Allegheny County Jail and Kane Community Living Centers in 2024.
Abigail Gardner, spokeswoman for Allegheny County, said in a statement that the population at the jail increased in 2025, which drove up costs significantly.
“But luckily the population has decreased since the beginning of December and is back in line with prior years,” Gardner said.
Actual expenditures at the jail increased by $5.5 million in 2025, while spending at Kane Community Living Centers fell by $1.3 million because of reduced spending on contracted agency nurses, the report said.
“Spending at the Kane Centers falling and decrease in contract nurses are prime examples of where management has been able to identify cost savings opportunities that do not put clients at risk,” Gardner said.
Within the Department of Human Services, spending by Children, Youth and Families increased by $28 million. Approximately $18 million of that increase was offset by additional state and federal funding.
Cydney Cooper, spokeswoman for the Allegheny County Department of Human Services, declined to provide comment.
The report also noted several shifts in county revenue.
Sales tax revenue increased to $67.5 million, a $3 million rise from last year. The 2025 figure is roughly $15 million higher than in 2019.
State revenue rose by $15.5 million as Children, Youth and Families Act 148 funding increased for housing, truancy and after-school programs. Meanwhile, interest revenue declined by $7.9 million because of reduced American Rescue Plan fund balances and lower interest rates.
Pension Concerns
Weise Clements also urged the Allegheny County Jail to reduce its reliance on employee overtime, arguing that doing so could help strengthen the county’s pension fund.
Gardner said the county manager’s office has been prioritizing working with departments to decrease overtime.
The county’s pension fund stood at just 32.7% funded in 2025, up from 30.9% in 2024 but well below the 80% level generally considered healthy.
The gap between pension benefit payments and contributions widened from $41 million to $48.8 million, indicating the system is paying out increasingly more than it is taking in, according to the report.
Jesse Geleynse, spokesman for Allegheny County Jail, declined to comment.
Nonprofit payments and reassessment
Weise Clements called on county officials to seek payments from large nonprofit institutions, similar to agreements recently secured by the City of Pittsburgh. She argued that Allegheny County should not remain on the sidelines while other local governments pursue additional revenue from tax-exempt organizations.
The report also renewed attention on the county’s long-delayed property reassessment process.
“While, due to anti-windfall provisions in state law, a seemingly inevitable property reassessment would not immediately alter the county’s fiscal standing, it has become impossible to argue that embarking on this process is not long overdue,” Weise Clements said in the report.
In March, council members Dan Grzybek, D-Bethel Park, Lissa Geiger Shulman D-Hampton, and councilwoman-at-large Bethany Hallam sponsored proposed legislation to mandate countywide property reassessments every three years beginning in 2028.
Grzybek, Shulman and Hallam did not respond to request for comment.
Councilwoman Suzanne Filiaggi, R-Franklin Park, who chairs the Assessment Practices Committee, did not respond to request for comment.
Councilman Bob Palmosina, D-Pittsburgh, who chairs the Budget and Finance Committee, said he had not yet reviewed the report Monday morning.
Allegheny County Council President Michelle Naccarati-Chapkis, D-Plum, previously told reporters at the council meeting on May 26 that she needed more information before deciding whether she was in support of the bill.
Naccarati-Chapkis could not be reached for comment on Monday.
Weise Clements spoke in support of the bill.
“The housing market continues to fluctuate, and doing reassessments on a triennial basis and rotating makes the process more efficient, and there’s cost savings built in to just refreshing numbers that are more recent than waiting for such a long period of time,” she said.
Allegheny County Council will hold the second of four scheduled public hearings on the reassessments bill Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. at the CCAC Boyce Campus Auditorium in Monroeville.