Murphy to sign Act 47 fiscal recovery plan today
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Pittsburgh City Council yesterday gave final approval to the Act 47 city economic recovery plan during a dramatic three-hour meeting, beginning a wave of city spending cuts and, ultimately, widespread tax increases.
Darrell Sapp, Post-GazetteCouncilman Jim Motznik listens as fellow council members explain their reasons for voting on Act 47 yesterday. Motznik voted against Act 47. At left is Councilman Alan Hertzberg, who voted for the measure.
Click photo for larger image.
Act 47 spending cuts coming first; new taxes this fall
Despite intense lobbying by city employees, who will bear part of the cutbacks called for by the plan, the five members of the council majority stuck with the votes they had cast in last week's preliminary tally.
Voting in favor of the recovery plan were Alan Hertzberg, William Peduto, Doug Shields, Sala Udin and Council President Gene Ricciardi. Len Bodack, Twanda Carlisle, Jim Motznik and Luke Ravenstahl opposed it.
The plan -- which will become law with Mayor Tom Murphy's signature today -- calls for $33 million in spending cuts this year and with $41 million in new taxes to fill an expected $72 million shortfall next year. The taxes are on hold pending state action, but many of the work force cuts, including pay freezes and benefit changes, will be implemented immediately.
Before the vote, council listened to 80 minutes of public comment, much of it from union leaders opposed to the recovery plan.
Council members were repeatedly interrupted by shouts from the crowd of roughly 200, most of them workers, before they voted. Ricciardi finally asked police officers to remove some in the crowd from council chambers, saying the behavior was "very embarrassing" in a public forum.
"You make me sick," yelled 28-year-old firefighter Darrin Kelly of Greenfield, one of the first workers to leave.
"You've been getting fat off the city for a long time, you bum," another firefighter said to Udin.
Union officials repeatedly said they would work against council members who voted in favor of the Act 47 plan, while saying portrayals of labor leaders fighting the plan as "thugs" were unfair.
"We are not the old machine. We are not thugs. We are people of this community," shouted Jack Shea, the president of the Allegheny County Labor Council. "There are people sitting at that table who didn't have a chance to be City Council people [without labor's support], and don't forget it, because I will not."
"Alan, I'm very disappointed in you," fire captain David Sovyak said to Hertzberg. "You come to our picnics, you socialize with us, you golf with us, you do everything with us, but when it comes down to being with us, you're not with us."
"Councilman Hertzberg, you've been in our hall many times. You will not be there again," said Teamsters 249 Vice President Joseph Rossi. To heavy cheers from the crowd, Rossi also told Ricciardi and Udin, possible mayoral candidates next year, that his union would fight their campaigns.
"Gene Ricciardi, I take exception to you personally," said firefighters union President Joe King, claiming that one of the fire stations in the council president's district could close under the plan.
"You'll be held accountable, mister, if something happens in Allentown."
But the five-member council majority stuck together. None of the five said they fully supported the plan, but they all said they had no choice but to vote for it.
Without the recovery plan, they said, the city would ultimately face bankruptcy. And the commuter taxes possible under Act 47 rules, they said, were necessary to push state legislators to approve city tax reform.
Shields -- the swing vote to approve the plan and a longtime aide to former councilman Bob O'Connor -- delivered a mesmerizing address, in part by turning the tables on the same union leaders who had just criticized him. They shared blame with Mayor Tom Murphy for the city's budget ills, he said, because they supported Murphy's last campaign in 2001.
"Some of the people who were so highly critical of us today endorsed the current administration," Shields said softly. "We now sit here today and bear the brunt of the sins of those who ran this city into the ground.
"They all endorsed him, stood up and said this is our guy," Shields said.
On his desk, Shields had copies of letters from both King and Shea voicing their support for Murphy. He decided not to read from them, but as his assault on the union leaders continued, and his voice rose, the formerly raucous room went silent.
"They stood there, locked arms with this person ... and all of a sudden it's my fault? I'm not going to accept that blame."
Udin called his vote on the plan "the most important and far reaching vote I have ever cast, or am likely to cast in the future."
Ricciardi, a longtime labor supporter, said it was the duty of union leaders to defend their workers and he had "great respect" for their fighting.
But Ricciardi said council has to "balance our citizens' need for services with our ability to pay for them. It has long been painfully obvious that we can no longer afford the levels of service to which we have become accustomed."
Council opponents said the plan would hurt the city's quality of life and its workers, and questioned whether the state will ultimately approve the payroll and occupation taxes in one of the plan's tax packages. Without that approval, city residents could face a 0.37 percentage point wage tax increase and a 5 percent rise in property taxes.
Since state legislators will likely not act on any tax package until November, the council opponents said the city should reject the plan and let unions work on new cost-cutting efforts the rest of the year.
"It's not good enough. It's not going to work. I don't want to settle for mediocrity," Ravenstahl said.
"Unfortunately, we are not listening to all the parties in this city. I will vote no because I [in good conscience] cannot vote yes," said Carlisle.
Murphy -- who did not attend the session -- released a statement thanking council for the vote and saying he intends to sign the Act 47 ordinance immediately. Gov. Ed Rendell also lauded council's vote, calling it "a new beginning" for the city that will lay the foundation for tax reform in Harrisburg.
The plan asks the state to approve a new employer payroll tax and an increase in the $10 occupational privilege tax to $145 annually. Without that state approval, the plan requires the city to petition Common Pleas Court later this year for a new 0.27 percent wage tax on most commuters, and wage and property tax increases on city residents.
Act 47 co-coordinator James Roberts of the Eckert Seamans law firm called the vote "a watershed day" for the city.
"This was the day our elected officials, number one, admitted that we have a fiscal problem, and at same time actually adopted a plan to get us out of trouble. I think it's a very, very important day," he said.
First Published June 30, 2004 12:00 am
