Allegheny County chief pitches 2022 budget with no tax hikes, more money for parks, jail, IT

Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald is proposing a 2022 budget that would pump more money into parks, roads, technology and public health without raising any taxes on property owners.

Fitzgerald, who pitched his budget in-person during Tuesday evening’s County Council meeting, touted his plan as another “responsible budget” that will better serve communities countywide “without sacrificing needed investments in infrastructure and parks, our workforce and our residents.”

County Council plans to hold budget hearings in coming weeks before deciding on a final plan.

Per the county’s Home Rule charter, next year’s annual operating and capital budgets must be balanced and approved by early December.

Under the chief executive’s plan, the county’s $990.6 million operating budget would mark a 3.2% increase from the county’s pre-pandemic budget of 2020.

Fitzgerald boasted there would be no increase to the county’s millage rate for the 20th time in 21 years.

“We are fortunate that we had a reserve fund at adequate levels to be able to continue operations without a need to reduce our workforce or make other cuts,” Fitzgerald said.

Like many municipalities, the county also is offsetting losses in revenue during the pandemic-spurred shutdown and related downturn — which led to a 2% overall drop in annual revenue — with help from federal grants and loans, including those approved by Congress and the American Rescue Plan.

“The fiscal recovery funds that have allowed the county to replace lost revenues have been integral to allow us to recover financially from the pandemic while also continuing to invest in our community and its residents,” Fitzgerald said.

Among items highlighted by Fitzgerald in his proposed 2022 budget:

• Parks infusion: Increase in money to improve parks and advance major projects, including in the North Hills and at the Allegheny County Fairgrounds in South Park.

• Lab upgrade: Money would go to the county Health Department to upgrade the department’s public health laboratory into to a regional public health laboratory center. The envisioned center would support all bureaus of the county’s health department, as well as other public health agencies, law enforcement and regional partners in rural areas.

• Technology investments: Fitzgerald said that “the past year and a half,” in particular, demonstrated the urgent need for upgrades to the county’s information technology capacity, including computer systems and databases used by the likes of health, human services and emergency services departments. The goal is “better data gathering, communication and remote access to services for residents.”

“The need for advanced technology has been underscored by the pandemic, with greater demand,” according to Fitzgerald’s budget outline. “The budget focuses heavily upon supporting technology that maximizes the expertise of employees and existing resources.”

The budget for Allegheny County Jail would be increased by $12 million, with Fitzgerald attributing a spike in costs to a voter-approved referendum. Voters overwhelmingly approved a referendum in May to ban the use of solitary confinement — except in limited circumstances — as well as the use of restraint chairs, chemical agents and leg shackles.

“The referendum has become a very costly item for the jail administration to deal with,” Fitzgerald said. “Taking away certain tools means we’re going to be requiring more staff.”

Capital projects

The capital funding portion of the budget totals $182.5 million. It would pay for 73 infrastructure and improvement projects, including road paving and repairs, rehabilitating the Roberto Clemente Bridge and landslide remediation. The proposed budget also calls for adding more electric cars to the county fleet, “green parking solutions” and continued support for the “net-zero parks project.”

Under the plan, the grants and special projects allocation would jump by nearly $336 million up to $1.7 billion — a 24% increase. A large portion of the increase can be attributed to the coronavirus-related federal aid — “but the grants budget also includes funding to address the needs of the county’s most vulnerable populations,” according to the county executive’s office.

More money also would be allocated to the Children Initiatives Department and efforts to increase educational opportunities, including funding for scholarship and financial aid programs provided by the Community College of Allegheny County.

Fitzgerald said that the slight spending increase will help put the county back on track in terms of workforce and other needs. He spoke of the need to build the budget around reliable sources of revenue, not one-time sources, in order to thwart potential downgrades by rating agencies, which would increase long-term costs on taxpayer-backed debts.