Pittsburgh City Council Holds Public Hearing On New 5 Year Plan

Pittsburgh City Council today held a public hearing regarding the adoption and approval of a new five year fiscal recovery plan. No one spoke today in full support of the plan. All the members of council expressed their discontent with the plans recommendations of further wage freezes and job cuts. Councilman Patrick Dowd says the plan does not address the fundamental issue of finding a long term way of closing the gap between expenditures and revenues, and City Controller Michael Lamb said that the plan may bring the city to solvency in five years but it will not allow the city to compete with surrounding municipalities and throughout the state. Some members of council and registered speakers expressed their unhappiness with the lack of involvement on the part of the Mayor.