County Council approves 2023 budget, $2.8 million more to CCAC

Tuesday’s Allegheny County Council meeting was full of tension as council members went back and forth on proposed budget amendments and residents in attendance voiced their support and opposition.

During the meeting, the county approved a total of $3.015 billion for the 2023 operating, capital, grants and special accounts budgets.

County Executive Rich Fitzgerald introduced a $1.02 billion operating budget and an $84.4 capital budget in October. Since then, two public hearings and a town hall were held to hear from residents on the budget. 

On Nov. 30, the budget and finance committee met to discuss proposed budget amendments.

The operating budget recommended to the council by the committee saw an increase in the money allotted to the county public defender’s office and the medical examiner’s office, administrative services for the division of elections, the Health Department, the Community College of Allegheny County, the Court of Common pleas and the district attorney’s office. 

An initial amendment that passed in committee, chaired by Councilmember Robert Palmosina, increased the salaries of attorneys from the public defender and district attorney’s offices to $65,000. Starting salaries begin at $45,000, almost $20,000 less than offices in surrounding counties, councilmember Bethany Hallam stated in the Nov. 21 town hall.

Multiple residents appeared at Tuesday’s County Council meeting to urge council members to approve the amendment in the final budget vote.

Bobby Hillman, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, told council members that a locality’s budget is where it reflects literal fiscal value into its moral principles.

“A salary of $45,000 isn’t enough to cover the rising cost of living for the people who are tasked with so many moving parts of maintaining innocence until proven guilty,” Hillman said. “If you vote for a budget that doesn’t adequately fund maintaining freedom for innocent residents of Allegheny County, you are telling them that you personally do not believe that they are worthy of their autonomy.”

However, at the Tuesday night meeting, Councilmember DeWitt Walton proposed an amendment that removed the money added to the budget for offices of the district attorney, public defender, court record and medical examiner. 

Walton cited the tentative agreement that would raise wages and improve working conditions that was recently reached between the United Steelworkers/Allegheny County Court-Related Professional Employees unit and the county. 

“If a TA is reached, the county has a legal obligation to pay that regardless of any other issues,” Walton said. “It’s just that simple.” 

Other councilmembers shared concerns about where the extra money to pay workers was coming from. Tom Duerr said dipping into the general fund balance to satisfy wage increases could negatively impact the county down the road. 

“I have seen firsthand in the municipality I live in the danger of using the general fund for short-term projects like this and expenses like this,” he said. “Bethel Park School District in 2019 nearly completely emptied the general fund in order to pay for a tax decrease, and we are still feeling the ramifications of that decision.”

Walton’s amendment was adopted in an 8-7 vote with opposition from Councilmembers Olivia Bennett, Jack Betkowski, Hallam, Michelle Naccarati-Chapkis, Robert Palmosina, Anita Prizio and council President Patrick Catena. 

A second amendment proposed by Walton Tuesday looked to revert the money allotted in the budget to Allegheny County Community College back to its original amount, $2.8 million less than what the budget and finance recommended. 

During discussion, Hallam cited the Community College Act, which requires the county to provide one-third of the funding for the college. 

“Right now, we’re hovering around 21-22% of the total budget contribution, so this gets us one-third of the way to our legally required contribution,” Hallam said. “So I’m going to vote no to against taking away $2.8 million away from CCAC. I will never, ever vote for that.”

Councilmember John Palmiere told the council that as a member of CCAC’s board of directors he could guarantee that the college’s president, Quintin Bullock, would come to the council with a plan if given the additional budget money. 

“Anybody that thinks that money gets wasted on education don’t know what the hell they’re talking about,” Palmiere said. “We run a good ship over there.”

The council also heard from residents on funding for the community college. 

Justin Starr, endowed professor of advanced technology at CCAC, said that sometimes the computers they use are older than the students he teaches.

“It is pretty depressing,” Starr said. “We pride ourselves at CCAC, we always say we can do more with less, and we mean it. I think we’re really good at that, but I think at some point, we kind of look in the mirror and recognize there’s that limit where you hate to admit it, but you end up doing less with less.”

The amendment failed to pass in a 7-8 vote with Bennett, Betkowski, Hallam, Naccarati-Chapkis, Palmiere, Palmosina, Anita Prizio and council President Catena voting against it. 

Fitzgerald said in a statement his office will review the proposed 2023 operating budget and its changes in the coming days “to determine next steps and to ensure that any amendments are in the best interest of county taxpayers.”

“I’m proud of the work that we have done over the last 11 years to support ongoing budget needs and new initiatives without any increase in our property tax rate, while also increasing and protecting our fund balance with the amount needed to assure bond rating agencies of this county’s creditworthiness,” reads his statement.