Allegheny County leaders are at loggerheads over the proposed 2025 budget and looming deficits. And County Executive Sara Innamorato says critics of her own solution — which includes a proposed 2.2 mill property tax hike — have an obligation to come up with alternatives of their own.
The $1.2 billion spending plan proposed by Innamorato includes the first tax hike in more than a decade — an increase some County Council members called “dead on arrival.” It would boost the county millage rate by more than 46% to 6.93 mills. If approved, it would generate about $167 million in additional revenue and cost the median homeowner about $15 each month.
“Asking everyone to chip in a little bit more when times are tough is not a small thing,” Innamorato said at a Tuesday press conference touting her administration’s progress on the All In Allegheny action plan. “Believe me, a tax increase is not my first choice, but it is a last resort.”
Innamorato said the hike is necessary to fill the county’s $81 million deficit, and to prepare for challenging economic conditions ahead: COVID-pandemic-era federal funds that once offset deficits are set to expire, while operating costs have increased and state funding is stagnant.
She added that her plan doesn’t represent a major increase in spending; it’s a 3% bump over the proposed 2024 budget and in line with past raises. She called it “clear-eyed about the financial precarity of this county,” given that every budget since 2021 has included a structural deficit.
And she threw down the gauntlet on County Council’s criticism of the proposal.
“If they’re interested in not moving forward with the 2.2 mill [increase], they’re going to have to tell us specifically what they want to cut, what programs they want to end,” she said Tuesday. “Whether it’s not investing in our childcare, whether it’s reducing the amount of money we’re spending at the 911 centers, whether it’s cutting our county police or any of the row offices, they have to propose what these cuts look like.”
In an earlier interview with WESA, Innamorato said that council members “who have been there bear responsibility,” for passing budgets that contained budget deficits in earlier years. And she said her budget was making the same kind of investment they had.
“They have passed budgets year over year that invested in our departments, invested in the row offices, invested in projects that are very important to the communities that they represent. And so, they also play a role in getting us to this point.”
A tax increase of some size is nearly assured, said Council President Pat Catena. But he said a “2.2 mill increase on the backs of the county residents, in my opinion, is too much. A majority of council pretty much agrees with that. We need to look to see what we can cut.”
Council members are privately floating their own alternatives, Catena said, though he declined to discuss them publicly.
For his part, Catena said he shares Innamorato’s interest in preserving core county functions, but not every expenditure qualifies.
“There are certain things, obviously, in that budget that I’d like to say we can afford at this point in time,” he said. “But being realistic, the only way we afford some of these things is by increasing the millage 2.2 mills.”
Catena said he hopes council and the executive can “work across the hall and we can come up with a mutually agreeable solution for the residents and the taxpayers of Allegheny County.”
Council has begun a series of budget hearings, during which departments have said their own budgets have little wiggle room.
At an Oct. 17 hearing, when asked if any part of their budgets could be eliminated, Sheriff Kevin Kraus, Controller Corey O’Connor, and Treasurer Erica Rocchi Brusselars said doing so would be difficult, and could mean laying people off.
“I don’t know where I would cut it,” Kraus said, adding that the department’s budget as presented is “reflective of the core functions of the office.”
Later, first assistant District Attorney Rebecca Spangler accused the Innamorato administration of showing “clear bias in the public safety portion of the budget against law enforcement.” She said the budget proposal provides no funding for additional personnel the department requested, and eliminates money needed to pay for software.
Innamorato told WESA that complaints about shorting public safety were a “disingenuous analysis.” More than $334 million of the 2025 budget is allocated for spending on public safety, including funding for the District Attorney’s office. County officials said the 2025 spending plan actually increases the DA’s budget by 5.88% over the current year, and noted that the office has approximately 15-20 vacant positions open.
Early in her tenure, Innamorato announced a pay increase for non-union county workers, as well as a number of other changes to the county’s employment practices. Some criticized the move, which is expected to cost $1.9 million in 2025. But that’s just a fraction of the county’s billion-dollar budget, and Innamorato told WESA she doesn’t regret the decision.
“When I raised wages, the starting wage for a county employee [went] from $15 an hour to $18 an hour. We're talking about $41,000 a year. We're asking people to start a career at Allegheny County making $41,000 a year, and that's the increased wage,” she said.
Despite the significant financial challenges the county faces, Innamorato said she has been able to implement parts of the expansive policy proposals she campaigned on, like the wage increase. At Tuesday’s press conference, she said the county has made progress on or completed more than 87% of the 91 action items created in response to concerns laid out by residents in her administration’s All In Allegheny survey.
Among those efforts, she highlighted her office’s efforts to make voting easier by adding four satellite voting locations and 10 ballot return stations countywide, and a pilot alternative-response program she said will dispatch mental health professionals instead of police to some emergency situations. She also noted that the housing program she launched, called 500 in 500, has created more than 100 units of deeply affordable housing in the county.
Innamorato said revenue from the proposed tax increase is “going towards things that are absolutely essential for the 1.2 million people who live in Allegheny County,” including investments in public safety, human services, and housing.
“I wanted to make sure that we can continue the services that we provide while also modernizing them and making them more accessible to more people,” she told WESA.
The proposed 2025 budget includes funding for the upkeep of the 408 miles of county-owned roads, 518 bridges and the Armstrong Tunnel, and programs assisting with childcare, senior services, and various support programs.
“Passing this budget I proposed will pay dividends for years to come,” Innamorato said. “But if we continue to starve ourselves, we will not grow. Not only that, we will have to cut. We will move backwards. Without this budget, we may not be able to maximize the potential of our region and of its people.”
The administration also launched a new budget transparency dashboard meant to help residents see how their tax dollars are being spent.
Innamorato and County Council must approve the budget by Dec. 6.
Council’s next budget hearing will take place at 5 p.m. on Oct. 28 in the Gold Room of the Allegheny County Courthouse. Members of the public must sign up in advance to comment on the budget. Written comments will be accepted through Nov. 8.
