Summary: The county controller presented Allegheny County’s 2024 Annual Comprehensive Financial Report (ACFR) on June 30, summarizing results from 2024. According to the controller, the county’s financial “situation remains unsustainable.” Note that this is the first time since 2012 that an ACFR followed a property tax increase. All general fund actual and budget figures are reported on a budgetary basis for comparison purposes.
Introduction: In a recent media release, Pittsburgh International Airport (PIT) reported that May’s count of total passengers, enplanements and deplanements, was 877,300. As of July 7, the breakout of May 2025 data with details of domestic and international travelers and airport operations still had not been posted on the airport’s website.
The released May figure was down from the May 2024 reading of 892,467. For the first five months of 2025, total passengers were essentially unchanged from 2024’s first five-month total. In the coming five months (June to October) of 2025, it is likely passenger counts will compare very unfavorably to 2024 figures.
The stated intent of Pennsylvania House Bill 985 is to divert liquor tax revenue to provide grants to municipalities with tax-exempt property comprising 15 percent or more of total assessed value and with household median income of less than 115 percent of the state level.
But, “While the intent appears to be useful, the implementation and constraints of the proposed legislation pose many problems,” says Jake Haulk, president-emeritus of the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy (in Policy Brief Vol. 25, No. 21).
As state budget negotiations come down to the June 30 wire and transit agencies across the commonwealth continue to lobby for the most taxpayer bailout money they can secure, we’ve repeatedly heard, and read, that Pittsburgh Regional Transit (PRT) can’t cut its way out of its latest fiscal “crisis.”
