Pittsburgh's deficit reaches $30.2 million, deepened by assumed NFL Draft loss, as Public Works buys a dozen trailers for neglected upkeep

Top Agenda Items

• Projected year-end deficit grows to $30.2 million as revenues fall short
• Nearly $60,000 would buy a dozen trailers for snow and lawn crews

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Projected year-end deficit grows to $30.2 million as revenues fall short

With the close of the second quarter, Pittsburgh’s financial situation is looking even more grim with the NFL Draft having put a $1 million hole in the budget.

“Unfortunately, I don’t have good news for you today,” Rea Price, Deputy Director of the Office of Management and Budget, said on Sept. 1 during council’s quarterly financial update. 

According to Price, the projected year-end deficit has gone from $24.4 million to $30.2 million since the end of the first quarter.

In breaking down the numbers, she said the city spent $3.5 million more in the second quarter of 2026 than the same period in 2025, while experiencing a $1.3 million reduction in revenue over the same. Currently, revenues are projected to come in $16.5 million under budget. 

Price reiterated her preference for conservative estimates, especially at the beginning of the year. However, when council members questioned if the deficit would continue to grow, she was more hesitant to suggest a better outcome than she was in June.

“The outlook on expenditures would typically get better once you got to the end of the year. And the same thing with revenues, too, in the past,” she said, “but this year has been a weird year in my experience. So it’s very hard to say at this point.” 

While the final revenue numbers aren’t yet available, another presumed disappointment came by way of the NFL Draft. According to Finance Director Jen Gula, parking revenue for April 2026 is at about half the total for April 2025.

Elizabeth Cercone, Assistant Director for Operating and Special Revenue, said that, while the city received the promised $2 million from VisitPittsburgh, “I would suggest that we are not whole.” When factoring the city’s initial investment of $1 million, however, she said there’s a likely loss of at least $1 million.

Nearly $60,000 would buy a dozen trailers for snow and lawn crews 🔗

A new Department of Public Works (DPW) purchase could help cut back the city’s overgrowth problem.

Council agreed to move forward with the Department of Public Works’s (DPW) request to purchase a dozen new landscaping trailers.

Acting fleet manager Branwyn Turnage said during the Sept. 2 committee meeting that the nearly $60,000 purchase — allocated from the DPW trust fund — would benefit both the parks and streets departments. She said 12 is the minimum necessary to allow DPW to efficiently transport snow removal and lawncare equipment as well as address 311 calls.

There are currently two trailers for these purposes.

Council Member Bob Charland of the South Side said not having enough trailers has contributed to “the filthy condition that my district is in right now.” He said, “It looks like a jungle there this year, and a large part of that is the trailer issue and borrowing trailers from Environmental Services and elsewhere.”

Additionally, the DPW division that covers the South Hills neighborhoods has been working out of the Strip District for nine years while waiting for a new building in Knoxville. “We’re also adding like an hour of time into every little job to move a lawnmower in or throw it in the back of a pickup truck,” Charland said. 

The building is currently slated to open later this fall.