ICA Okays Pittsburgh's 2010 Budget

Pennsylvania’s Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority (ICA) today accepted the 2010 budget proposed by Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl.

Executive Director Henry Sciortino says all of the new proposal’s line items were “legally enforceable,” as opposed to the budget proposed on November 17. That document included a 1% tax on higher education tuition, which the new proposal omits.

Sciortino says Pittsburgh overcame a $15 million gap by operating more efficiently. For example, expected collections from the delinquent tax increased.

“Originally, those numbers weren’t projected in the city budget in a way in which we thought could be accomplished.” says Sciortino. “So there were a lot of inefficiencies that were brought to the table that amounted to just about 15 million dollars.”

Sciortino added that no city workers were fired in the making of this budget.