A new City of Pittsburgh fiscal recovery plan, introduced to council today, would seek to cancel a proposed cut in the parking tax, address a "crisis" in the pension fund, and increase management's rights to discipline and shuffle workers.

Overall, it aims to convert what could be $7 million to $10 million deficits starting next year into surpluses averaging $20 million.

"The city has done a really solid job of holding its finances together at a time when others nationally have been really pushed and threatened by the economy," said Dean Kaplan, co-leader of the state-picked Act 47 recovery team charged with getting the city on firm financial footing.

But the city still has more than $1 billion in future obligations to pay pensions, retiree health insurance and workers compensation, for which it has no means to pay. The new plan aims to start to deal with those and "get them out of oversight," as Mr. Kaplan put it.

The city is part of the state's program for financially distressed communities and under that program must develop a financially recovery plan every five years. This would be the city's second plan.

State law calls for a cut in the city parking tax from 37.5 percent this year to 35 percent next year. The tax has already been trimmed from 50 percent in 2004. The plan would cancel the final cut and put the revenue toward capital work, like road and bridge repair.

"Our impression is pretty strongly that the benefit of the parking tax reductions is arguably not going to the people who were supposed to most benefit," said Mr. Kaplan. "Rates have not gone down in a while" and the city needs money to pay for its infrastructure.

The plan describes the pension fund as in "crisis," with a balance at the end of last year that is just 29 percent of ideal levels. It would have the city increase its planned contribution by $10 million to $14 million a year. With decent investment earnings, that could boost the fund by $188 million over 10 years. The fund is more than $635 million below where it should be.

If the city can't find enough savings opportunities or revenue windfalls to put an extra $10 million into the pension fund, the plan calls on officials to go to Harrisburg and ask for permission for a tax increase -- perhaps a hike in the $52-a-year levy on people who work in the city, to $145, or an expansion of the payroll tax to include tax-exempt groups like hospitals and universities.

The Act 47 team wants to change the formula by which firefighter pension benefits are determined by eliminating overtime from the calculation. They also want the city to start shifting new employees toward less generous pension plans or defined-contribution plans, like 401(k) plans.

Mayor Luke Ravenstahl is exploring a long-term lease of the city's parking garages, and would put most of the proceeds into the pension fund -- an option the plan acknowledges.

The plan also would ask tax-exempt organizations to contribute more -- $6 million a year starting in 2011, up from the average of $1.8 million a year proposed by an umbrella group of nonprofit entities to cover the years 2008 through 2010.

City employees would see their contract bargaining rights limited, but not as strictly as they were in the prior plan, passed in 2004.

Most city employees are in the last year of their contracts. The plan would give all of those signing on to new contracts a $1,000 signing bonus, but no raise, in 2010, followed by pay hikes of 2 percent in 2011 and 2012, 2.5 percent in 2013, and 3 percent in 2014.

Awarding the bonus next year would be cheaper, in the long run, than giving a raise, said Mr. Kaplan, because it wouldn't boost the base salaries upon which future raises build.

New contracts would have to get rid of restrictions on the city's right to hire contractors, change employee schedules, lay people off, and decide which union's workers perform which roles.

The city has made progress toward cutting workers' compensation costs, but they still hover near $25 million a year, which is considered high. One proposed measure -- requiring disabled employees to treat with city-picked doctors for the duration of their disability -- could face union opposition. Most employees now have to treat with the "company doctor" for 90 days, and firefighters can choose their own physician after 30 days.

The plan calls for closing Fire Station 12 on Winterburn Street in Greenfield, and eliminating three of four deputy fire chiefs. It also has the city going to the state for changes in laws that give firefighters on a trial board a veto over disciplinary actions against their own.

"The majority of the workforce initiatives, as we anticipated, are violations of state statutes," said Joe King, president of the International Association of Fire Fighters Local 1. "You don't make recommendations in a recovery plan that contradict or conflict with state statutes."

The plan would convert 38 Police Bureau positions into civilian jobs.

Council is expected to schedule special meetings and a public hearing on the plan shortly. Council can amend it only with the Act 47 team's consent.

Act 47 team co-leader Jim Roberts said he hopes council will adopt the plan by the end of June, when the city and police and fire unions are expected to put their contract proposals on the table.