The Allegheny Regional Asset District on Wednesday approved a record $141.2 million budget for 2025.
RAD is funded by the county’s 1% sales tax and in turn provides key support for libraries, parks and more than 100 cultural groups. The 2025 budget was 1.06% higher than last year’s budget, which was also a record.
Highlights of the 2025 budget include $5 million in capital funding for the 8th Street Block Civic Space, the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust’s planned new green space, family play area and bandshell Downtown.
The new budget is based on RAD’s projection of $260 million in sales tax revenues in 2025.
Half of that total revenue will go directly to the county and its municipalities for local services.
The other half is allocated by the RAD board of directors as either operating funds or capital grants, with some funding coming from RAD’s grant-stabilization reserve, investment and interest earnings, and general-fund surplus.
Operating grants make up about $120 million of the $141.2 million total. This money is especially important to arts and culture groups because RAD funds are among the few sources of unrestricted operating grants available to them.
Some 63% of those operating funds will go to libraries, parks and trails. About 12.4% will be split among more than 100 cultural groups, while 11.9% goes to pay down debt on sports facilities and the David L. Lawrence Convention Center, and 8.5% goes to regional attractions like the Pittsburgh Zoo, the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh, Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens, and the National Aviary. Pittsburgh Regional Transit receives another 2.5%.
Among other arts groups, the biggest recipients include the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust ($2.5 million), Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra ($1.75 million), Heinz History Center ($850,000), Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh ($675,000), WQED Pittsburgh ($530,000) and the August Wilson African American Cultural Center ($550,000).
As in years past, most recipients of operating funds this year received $30,000 or less. New recipients this year include crafters’ marketplace Handmade Arcade and the Pittsburgh Chinese Cultural Center, which received $3,000 each. The Legacy Arts Project, a previously funded group that did not receive a grant this year, will receive $5,000. (WESA’s sister music station, WYEP, received $45,000 in operating funds for 2025.)
Among the larger capital grants were: $6 million to the Cultural Trust, including $5 million for the 8th Street project and $1 million for improvements to the Benedum Center; $2.3 million to the county for repairs and upgrades to its nine regional parks; $2.3 million to the City of Pittsburgh for the retaining wall along Serpentine Drive in Schenley Park and improvement of the bandshell and entrance in Grandview Park; $1.2 million to the Allegheny Land Trust for a variety of regional trail projects; and $1.1 million to the Pittsburgh Zoo & Aquarium for a variety of upgrades.
