Pittsburgh’s finances are on a roll, city Controller Michael Lamb reports. Increased activity, especially downtown, has boosted Amusement and Parking Tax revenues. And an extremely generous — maybe too generous — infusion of cash from the American Rescue Plan (ARP) saved the city from mass layoffs and deposited $216 million in an ARP trust fund. 

Partly due to transfers from that windfall fund, the city’s general fund took in $24.5 million more than it spent in 2021. With an increase in tax revenues in the first half of 2022, the general fund shouldn’t need more transfers to break even.

It seems almost self-evident — just look around — that city officials ought to use that trust fund, which they must allocate by 2025 and spend by 2027, for neglected maintenance on essential infrastructure. ARP funds cannot, by law, go to the city’s other major fiscal burden — pensions. 

Of course there will be temptations to use ARP funds for glitzy projects. But putting Pittsburgh’s future ahead of its present is how the city got into its infrastructure mess. If Pittsburgh wants to become a model for high-tech development, it needs a foundation of roads, bridges, pipes and other municipal hardware that doesn’t leave residents nervous about the next disaster. Basic infrastructure needs to come first.

Mr. Lamb reported that, in 2021, the city spent $59.2 million from the separate capital projects fund. Of that, $39 million went to the engineering and construction of such projects. That might sound like a lot, but nearly nearly half of that money — about $18 million — went to the everyday task of street resurfacing. With other more mundane expenses, like more than $4 million for remediating slope failures, there’s not much left in the city’s standard budget for major infrastructure repairs. There were only two million-dollar projects in 2021: Replacing the West Ohio Street Bridge in West Allegheny, and replacing the Carnahan Road Bridge in Banksville.

Taxpayers should embrace the ARP funds as a way to catch up on neglected municipal projects. Equally important, it provides an opportunity to revamp the Department of Mobility and Infrastructure to make sure maintenance isn’t deferred again, once the ARP windfall disappears.

Problems with the Fern Hollow Bridge weren’t just about money: The city’s nonchalance about basic, inexpensive maintenance and repairs suggests city government needs an infusion of competence as well as cash. The ARP trust fund should help with both — if the city uses this windfall to reset its priorities and planning, while catching up on road and bridge maintenance it neglected for far too long.  

First Published: July 1, 2022, 2:13 p.m.