The Pittsburgh Public Schools board on Wednesday unanimously approved the school district’s 2019 budget, again without a tax increase.
The roughly $650 million budget includes a 3 percent increase over last year and will use about $28.3 million from the district's fund balance to cover an operating deficit.
Chief financial officer Ron Joseph said the budget complies with the board’s minimum 5 percent fund balance policy, but the district will have to look at ways to increase revenue or cut expenditures to continue to meet that threshold. The balance is projected to dip below the 5 percent minimum by 2020, and the board won’t be able to use it to balance its budget by 2022, he said.
“That’s why we project so far out, so we can have an idea of what’s on the horizon,” said board President Lynda Wrenn.
She added that the district has “been in this situation before” and has been conservative with its spending and projections so administrators can make adjustments in advance to avoid drastic cuts to student programming.
Slightly more than half the budget is earmarked for salary and benefits. About 13 percent of the budget will go to charter school tuition payments, 13 percent to the district’s special education programs and about 5 percent for transportation. About 7 percent is dedicated to debt service.
“The 2019 general fund budget maintains our commitment to investing in intentional strategies aimed at spurring student achievement without a tax increase for taxpayers,” superintendent Anthony Hamlet said in a statement. “Based on rising employee-related costs and charter school payments, we will need to take the steps necessary to ensure that the district remains financially sustainable.”
An option for raising revenue — one the board briefly discussed during a budget meeting in November — is reabsorbing a quarter of a percent of the earned income tax levied by the district that since 2004 has been automatically allocated to the city.
The school code was amended when the City of Pittsburgh was placed under Act 47 status, and that revenue has been diverted to the city ever since. Now that the city is no longer financially distressed, some school board members have inquired about the process involved in having that money returned to the district’s coffers. Today, that quarter of a percent represents about $18 million.
Solicitor Ira Weiss said the district’s representatives in Harrisburg will be looking at the issue, since any change to the arrangement would require legislation.
“You have to come up with a remedy that would be amenable for both parties,” said Mr. Joseph, acknowledging that the money is a significant revenue stream for the city as well.
Elizabeth Behrman: Lbehrman@post-gazette.com, 412-263-1590 or @Ebehrman on Twitter.
First Published: December 20, 2018, 2:54 a.m.