Groups Sound Alarm Over County Budget Cuts

Afterschool services, job placement, housing help could be axed

By Jason Togyer
The Tube City Almanac
December 02, 2024
Posted in: State & Region

Children play at the Allegheny Intermediate Unit’s Family Services Center in Wilmerding. AIU officials said the center will be forced to close without continued funding from Allegheny County. (Photo courtesy Allegheny Intermediate Unit)

Mon-Yough area social services organizations are sounding the alarm over Allegheny County’s budget impasse, warning that programs that parents and seniors have come to rely upon could be eliminated.

Allegheny County Council is scheduled to meet Tuesday to consider a $1.2 billion budget proposal from County Executive Sara Innamorato that includes a 2.2-mill property tax increase.

Members of council have told reporters they consider her budget “dead on arrival” and that it lacks the necessary approval of 10 council members in order to pass. A council committee last week recommended a proposal that includes an increase of slightly more than half of what the executive has said is needed to avoid drastic and severe across-the-board cutbacks.

Council must approve a budget by Friday.

Wendy Smith, director of early childhood, family, and community services for the Allegheny Intermediate Unit, said that its 10 family centers — including in McKeesport, Duquesne, Wilmerding, Clairton and Homestead — will close without county funding.

“About half of the budget for these centers comes directly from Allegheny County, and the other half comes from the state through Allegheny County,” she said.

Without funding for the Allegheny County Department of Human Services, Smith said, “they will be gone.”

Innamorato has said a property tax increase is necessary to close an existing budget deficit and continue county services at current levels.

County taxes are currently set at 4.73-mills, or approximately 47 cents on each $100 of property value. If the increase is approved, a homeowner whose house is assessed at $100,000 could expect their taxes to increase $220 per year.

A county council committee last week recommended a property tax increase of 1.35-mills, a little bit more than half of what Innamorato has requested.

In a prepared statement, County Communications Drector Abigail Gardner said the proposal would “fall short of what the county ultimately needs” but said Innamorato’s staff would work with council leadership “in hopes of finding agreement on a budget that will deliver core services, critical programs and avoid layoffs.”

Innamorato has argued that a smaller hike — for instance, 1-mill — would still require severe cuts to balance the budget, including at least 1,000 layoffs — including emergency services personnel — and closures at county facilities such as parks and pools.

Local leaders said that private donations and funding would not be available to fill the gap left if funding to the county Department of Human Services’s discretionary programs is eliminated, and that county funding is often needed to unlock matching funds from state and federal agencies.

Smith said AIU’s centers, which provide out-of-school services for children and families, receive $2.6 million from Allegheny County each year.

Founded in 1997, the AIU family centers are an example of preventive care designed to keep families from slipping further into poverty and homelessness, she said, and keep children from turning to crime and violence.

“The original vision was that prevention services would grow over time, so that we would eventually spend more on prevention than intervention,” Smith said.

Unfortunately, funding has not kept pace with the need, she said, but the family centers remain a lifeline to communities, providing home visitations, transportation to medical appointments, assistance with school enrollment and other services. About 4,600 families are served each year, Smith said.

“Those services would have to ramp down before June,” she said. “And it would affect other things within the AIU as well.” A trauma response program in Highlands School District is currently housed in the family center in Tarentum.

Dave Coplan, executive director of Human Services Center Mon Valley, said his organization relies on nearly $600,000 in funding from Allegheny County.

The funding provides after-school and summer programming to more than 100 children in first through fifth grades, enabling their parents to work. Through HSC’s Emerging Leaders Program, county funding also supported 155 high-school seniors in East Allegheny, McKeesport Area, Penn Hills, West Mifflin Area and Woodland Hills school districts with completing their high school diplomas.

Coplan said 94 percent of the high-school seniors in the program went onto college, the military or a career.

HSC also leverages county funds to support financial literacy training for 400 people per year and income-tax preparation services for 700 low-income residents each year, he said.

“We are hopeful that the final county budget will be fully funded at the level proposed by the county executive, which accesses all matching funding available from the state as well,” Coplan said.

At a press conference last month in Braddock, community leaders and officials from several area non-profits, including Mon Valley Initiative, urged county council members to approve Innamorato’s budget.

MVI provides workforce development services, affordable housing, and pre-purchase mortgage counseling throughout the Mon Valley area.

In a letter sent to county council members and obtained by Tube City Almanac, MVI chief executive officer Laura Zinski acknowledged that increasing property taxes was a “difficult decision” but noted that it has been more than 10 years since Allegheny County last increased its millage rate.

“Mon Valley community members rely on the programs provided by the (county) Department of Human Services on a daily basis, including many of the programs at risk of being cut,” Zinski wrote, listing out-of-school programs, gun-violence prevention initiatives and rental assistance as among the services most-needed.

AIU’s Smith said her agency also has been talking to county council members about the need to support social programs, including the family services.

“We have to remain hopeful,” she said. “We’ve told our county council members about these services. They are not required services, but for the people who are using them, the difference they have made in their lives is huge. When you’re a family that doesn’t have much to begin with, these services help them to parent their children.”

Jason Togyer is editor of Tube City Almanac and volunteer executive director of Tube City Community Media Inc. Editor’s Note: The writer of this story has a conflict of interest. He is a former employee of Mon Valley Initiative.

Originally published December 02, 2024.

In other news:
"Photographer Captures…" || "New Asst. Chief Has D…"