News

Proposed Pittsburgh budgets would increase police, EMT staffing

Pittsburgh Mayor William Peduto submitted the city’s proposed 2017 Operating Budget, 2017 Capital Budget and the 2017-2022 Five-Year Financial Plan on Friday.

The $539.4 million operating budget contains no tax increases.

The 2017 budgets and five-year financial plan increase Public Safety Bureau forces. In a news release, the mayor’s office said police staffing is projected to reach 900 full-time officers, which is the highest staffing level since 2002. Additionally, one firefighter and two police recruit classes are funded, and EMS has funding to hire 20 emergency medical technicians.

The new budgets also maintain the 2016 commitment to increase funding for police vehicles to $1.6 million a year; invest $7.1 million into neighborhood and community development projects and dedicate $2.5 million in demolition funds to enhance quality of life and public safety measures in neighborhoods throughout the city.

COMPLETE DOCUMENTS:  

"I am proud to introduce another Pittsburgh budget that is again fiscally responsible and in alignment with the city's long-term recovery. While there is still work to be done, it keeps us on the path to finally climb out of fiscal oversight in 2019, with a five-year forecast that takes us to full recovery that year and beyond,” Peduto said in the news release.

To help deliver core municipal services, the operating budget reflects a departmental reorganization, including the creation of the Department of Mobility and Infrastructure to improve the planning, financing and implementation of transportation projects citywide, to strengthen the coordination of all mobility initiatives and to develop and execute a long-term vision for smart transportation in the city.

The budgets are subject to approval by City Council and the Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority.