EDITORIAL – Act 47 rehabs ‘Burgh’s money

Don’t look now, but the city of Pittsburgh is sitting on some extra cash for a rainy day…. Don’t look now, but the city of Pittsburgh is sitting on some extra cash for a rainy day.

That’s right, the city that was so broke a year ago that it was rooting through the Ohio River for spare change and borrowing a five-spot from Maryland for lunch, announced yesterday that it was looking at a $15 million budget surplus at the end of the 2005 fiscal year.

But hang on, Mayor O’Connor. Before you go looking for that Escalade with 22s and a chromed-out grille, check the math for a second.

Nearly $9 million of the surplus exits because former Mayor Tom Murphy left a number of public service jobs in our already skeleton-crew-run city unfilled. The Pittsburgh police, overextended and spread too thin, were budgeted for a meager 900 officers, and only 837 positions had been filled by the end of the year.

Escalade or no, the surplus has to make O’Connor happy. Despite some speculation from Murphy’s office that a small surplus might exist, it was still looking grim going into the 2006 fiscal year. Now, O’Connor’s administration has a little bit of headroom; spending and services may be tweaked a bit in the coming year. O’Connor has already said he plans to bump the police force up to the 900 for which it is budgeted.

And perhaps that’s just what’s in order. There were some hiccups this year; the Finance Department report that outlined the surplus mentioned that the understaffing responsible for the surplus in the first place “created a strain on the city’s ability to provide needed services.”

Still, props to the city and the state for making this happen. We have Act 47 to thank for this – that initially disturbing-sounding state oversight program that raised taxes and cut spending to help bring the city back to manageable financial status. It actually looks like it’s working, which is a deviation from the norm in Pittsburgh’s spending practices – its traditional fiscal policy would have found a way to somehow lose $68 billion in the couch cushions in the process of trying to save money.

Things are looking so good at the moment, in fact, that Councilwoman Twanda Carlisle and some others are saying that Pittsburgh doesn’t need the state meddling in its finances anymore.

Hey, slow down.

Right now, we need to stick with what’s working, and that’s state oversight. Pittsburgh thinking it can celebrate its new solvency by going back to managing its own budget is like an alcoholic finishing that 12th step and deciding to celebrate with a few beers. Next thing you know, you wake up in 2009 face down in the Mon Valley, you’re $260 billion in debt, you’ve sold your naming rights and the city is now called UPMC-Mellontropolis.

Stick with what’s working for now, Pittsburgh. If that’s state financial oversight and tight spending, then so be it. After all, you don’t want to end up like your cousin Buffalo.