City Council
Proposed budget schedule aims to avoid a New Year with no budget.
Pittsburgh City Council is considering a plan to codify a Dec. 20 deadline for passing the annual budget. The date gives the mayor 10 days to act with a one-day cushion for council to override a veto or for the budget to automatically become law if it remained unreturned. No one knows what happens if the budget isn’t passed by Dec. 31.
Written by Amy Whipple
Pittsburgh City Council is considering a plan to make sure the city begins the new year with the 2027 budget in place.
Council President R. Daniel Lavelle of the Upper Hill District said during the Oct. 28 committee meeting that his proposed bill would codify an annual Dec. 20 deadline for council to pass its budget. The date gives the mayor 10 days to act with a one-day cushion for council to override a veto or for the budget to automatically become law if it remained unreturned.
Last year, council reconfigured its meeting schedule in order to provide enough time to override a veto or mayoral inaction by Dec. 31.
The change was made to avoid the possibility of placing the city government in limbo with council having to restart the budget process. Council members didn’t know if that would be what they needed to do.
“I can’t tell you what we’ve done in the past when this happened, because it’s never happened,” said Shawn Carter, Legislative Projects Manager for the Office of the City Clerk.
Lavelle initially introduced the legislation in January as a proposed ballot referendum. He will submit the proposed schedule, which would no longer go before voters, as new legislation next week.
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