An effort to remove Allegheny County Council’s limits on its annual operating budget may be over before voters ever have a chance to weigh in.
Some council members are now seeking to repeal the measure that would have placed a charter amendment on the November ballot, stating newly received information about the county’s finances has changed the equation.
The bill to place the referendum on the November ballot originally passed council in a 9-6 vote on June 23, but new legislation added to council’s agenda for Tuesday’s meeting would rescind that action before the question reaches voters.
“The council has recently received information regarding the condition of the county’s retirement fund and general budgetary outlook for 2027,” the proposed legislation said. “In light of this information and due to the significance of the budgetary issues before council, it is the desire of council not to place this question on the ballot.”
The measure is one of three home rule charter amendments proposed by council this year.
Two of those proposals — the operating budget amendment and another that would expand council members’ access to employee benefits — were sponsored by Dan Grzybek, D-Bethel Park, Bob Palmosina, D-Pittsburgh, Jordan Botta, D-Bloomfield, Kathleen Madonna-Emmerling, D-Moon, Pat Catena, D-Carnegie and at-large council members Bethany Hallam and Alex Rose.
A third proposed charter amendment designed to remove the county executive’s sole contracting power, sponsored by Rose, failed to advance after dying in committee without sufficient support.
Monday’s online legislative documents indicated that some of the referendum question’s biggest proponents — Grzybek, Hallam and Catena — had changed their minds, signing on to cosponsor Councilwoman Suzanne Filiaggi’s action to repeal it.
Council members met with the county manager last week, who outlined ongoing budget pressures driven by rising personnel costs, inflation, the loss of federal pandemic aid and a growing pension liability, according to Hallam and Catena.
Those pressures continued unabated despite last year’s 36% property tax increase.
Catena said the budget presentation raised “serious concerns about the financial situation of the county.”
Hallam said even though the referendum would not have automatically increased the amount of money council received, council members could not in good faith ask the public to remove the cap while other county branches are pushing for reduced spending.
“It looks bad,” Hallam said.
Allegheny County’s acting controller, Amy Weise Clements, said last month that the pension was just 32.7% funded last year, which is well below the 80% level generally considered healthy.
Just last week, Allegheny County Manager John Fournier notified employees of changes to the county’s employee health insurance plan.
The update introduced a “working spouse limitation” that will require many employees’ spouses to obtain coverage through their own employers in an effort to decrease spending.
Filiaggi, R-Franklin Park, and Councilman Nick Futules, D-Verona, both opposed all three referendum questions from the beginning and maintained that position throughout.
Previously, Filiaggi said she was worried about an unlimited budget cap, although separate legislation would have been needed to impose a new cap.
Council members never supplied an estimate for how much additional money they were looking to get by establishing a new operating budget cap.
“We have never been at the cap,” Hallam said Monday.
The county’s home rule charter limits council’s annual operating budget to 0.4% of the county’s locally levied tax revenues. That amounted last year to $1.5 million.
Hallam added that the separate referendum on council members’ employee benefits can proceed without increasing council’s budget cap.
Filiaggi and Grzybek could not be reached for comment Monday.
Futules, who has been on council for more than 18 years, said all of the referendum questions appear to the public as a power grab.
He said while he respects what his fellow council members are trying to do at times, he feels the younger members of council “do not understand what their job is.”
“They finally realized they made a mistake,” Futules said.
The statutory deadline for finalizing referendum questions and submitting them for filing with the Board of Elections is on Aug. 4.
Council Chief Clerk Jared Barker said council could decide to waive the need for a second reading of the repeal bill with a two-thirds majority vote on Tuesday in order to comply with the timeline.
Council could also send the repealing measure to committee and then hold a special council meeting prior to council’s scheduled recess, he said.