The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center will be among the tax-exempt organizations making donations to the city of Pittsburgh this year, officials said yesterday, indicating that a new three-year pact on payments in lieu of taxes will soon be signed.

"I know that just a couple of months ago, we made a commitment to the mayor to give for 2009," said Paul Wood, UPMC vice president of public relations. After that? "We're taking it on a year-to-year basis."

The statement came a day after officials with both the city and the Pittsburgh Public Service Fund -- an umbrella organization for medical, educational, charitable and cultural institutions -- said they hadn't yet completed the follow-up to a three-year donation agreement that expired at the end of 2007.

From 2005 through 2007, the fund gave the city nearly $14 million. Mr. Wood said UPMC gave "the largest amount of any giver" under the prior agreement, which kept the precise donations of each institution confidential.

Under the emerging agreement, UPMC's first-year gift will be as large as its most recent contribution, Mr. Wood said. He would not provide the dollar figure.

Overall, though, the tax-exempt organizations will give less than they did under the prior agreement. Some have seen investments or revenue suffer during the recession.

"They, too, in some ways are struggling," Mayor Luke Ravenstahl said.

The city's long-term plan assumes $4.3 million a year in contributions from tax-exempt entities. The mayor said a drop in the donations shouldn't cause a serious budget problem, but it is important that payments continue.

The fund and the city have been caught in a chicken-and-egg situation. The fund has wanted a signed agreement before it provides a final dollar commitment, while the city has tried to get pledges from large institutions before signing the agreement.

"My understanding is that it will be signed soon, but I don't have a signed agreement," said the Rev. Ron Lengwin, spokesman for the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh and for the fund. He said that once it is signed, the fund will wire money meant to apply to 2008, which will be considered the first of the three years of a new deal.

Complicating the matter had been UPMC's 2007 decision to focus its civic giving on the Pittsburgh Promise, a college aid program for city graduates to which the medical giant pledged $10 million a year over 10 years, some of it subject to matching requirements. In light of that commitment, UPMC had said it would give to the city for one more year -- but now it may go longer.

"There has been no decision to withdraw from participating in the Pittsburgh Public Service Fund," said Mr. Wood. "We just made a commitment, to contribute for this coming year" and then will "take it on a year-to-year basis."