Kevin Acklin's Remarks on His Budget Plan
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Tuesday, October 6, 2009
BUDGET PLAN REMARKS
Kevin Acklin
| October 6, 2009
[Read Kevin's Budget Proposal.]
Good morning. Thank you for being here today.
Getting Our Priorities
Right
The budget of the City of
Pittsburgh is a reflection of the Mayor's priorities. When I read Mr.
Ravenstahl’s 2010 budget proposal, I was surprised by some of the misguided priorities
he set for our city.
His plan spends more on car
washes than on cement to repair our sidewalks. More on phone bills than on salt
to plow our roads. More on the Mayor’s office than on repairing our community
centers. Twice as much on dog food as on libraries.
Now, under an Acklin
Administration, our city's K-9 units won't starve, but neither will our
libraries. And that's why today, I’m announcing the Acklin Budget Proposal, a
plan to save the city's pension fund, to put 200 additional police officers on
the streets, to invest in our neighborhoods, and to renew the city’s commitment
to our libraries.
Keeping our Promises
My staff and I have run the
numbers, we have done the hard work, and we have prepared a balanced budget
proposal for the next four years. Our proposal makes city government more
responsive and more efficient, and it just makes it work better for the people
of Pittsburgh.
We aren't making empty
election year promises, or dramatic announcements just to get headlines. We’re
proposing real plans to make real change in Pittsburgh.
Over the last few weeks, as
we've announced our plans to combat neighborhood blight, to get more police
officers on the beat, and to save the pension fund, the Mayor has laid nothing
but empty criticism on the table. When we announced our plan to save the
pension fund, he said the numbers didn't add up. When we committed to put more
police officers on the beat, he said it was “wishful thinking” and we could
never afford. I couldn’t believe my ears when Mr. Ravenstahl’s spokesman
actually said that we have enough police officers already, and that we don't
need any more, as if everything in the neighborhoods is just fine.
Tell that to our police
officers, our firefighters, our city workers, and their families who are
worrying about their retirements. Tell that to the residents of Carrick and
Brookline and Garfield who are increasingly terrified by the crime and violence
in their neighborhoods.
I’m here to tell you that
under my plan, we can afford it, and
we will put 200 more police officers on our streets. We will make substantial investments in our
neighborhoods. We will commit 1
million dollars to the Carnegie Libraries over the next four years. We will save the pension fund. And we’ll do
it all without cutting a single city job or service, and without raising taxes
on a single working Pittsburgher.
Finding Solutions for
our Neighborhoods
The plan starts by
streamlining the City’s operations, identifying cost savings, and making
smarter
choices about our energy
use. My team has identified almost $10 million in annual cost-savings that will
come out of pushing paper, overpaying for outside work, and wasting resources.
We’ll put that tax money back into the neighborhoods – right where it came
from.
After a rash of arson,
scrawling headlines of tragic murders, and a public clamoring for safer streets
and more investments in their neighborhoods, Mr. Ravenstahl has inexplicably proposed
a budget that is almost exactly the same as the one he proposed last year.
My budget is different. It
meets the demands of Pittsburghers all across the city by making heavy – and
deficit-neutral – investments in our police force. As I proposed last week, it
puts 200 more officers on the beat and provides new technology, safer
protective gear, and better tools for fighting crime in our city. It creates a
new Neighborhood Safety Commission charged with directing our public safety
resources where they belong: in the neighborhoods.
My budget gives
Pittsburghers exactly what they deserve: a clear plan to make Pittsburgh the
safest big city in America.
In my budget, neighborhoods
are our top priority. By refocusing the URA on neighborhood development instead
of corporate welfare to large-scale developers, we can bolster our struggling
business districts and invest in our neighborhoods. Pittsburgh has built a great past on its city planning and
development. But it’s time now to
spur a new Pittsburgh renaissance not just in the downtown, or along the
shores, but right here in the neighborhoods, in our own backyards.
Kevin Acklin's
Priorities
Finally, my budget rejects
the Mayor’s old boy response that you have to tax working people to pay the city’s
growing bills. Mr. Ravenstahl's Patient and Student Taxes are regressive and
misguided, and they will only hinder Pittsburgh's future growth. At a time when
the economy is struggling and health care costs are soaring, it is both wrong and
immoral to ask sick patients to pay a tax for visiting the hospital. And when our city's future depends on
young people choosing to settle in Pittsburgh, imposing a new tax on college
students, our most eligible future residents, is no way to roll out a welcome
mat.
Under my plan, we’ll repeal
the Ravenstahl Patient and Student Taxes and replace them by expanding the
contribution from our city's corporate non-profits. If they won't contribute voluntarily, I will go to Harrisburg
and negotiate for the power to do so unilaterally. Our large non-profits are community partners with an
important stake in Pittsburgh’s future, and I’m asking them today to shoulder a
little more of the burden in paying for the services the city provides.
As I said before, the city’s
budget is a reflection of the Mayor's priorities. The differences between my
budget and Mr. Ravenstahl’s budget could not be more clear. If you want more
crumbling roads and bridges, more neighborhood development projects that never
get off the ground, and fewer police officers patrolling your streets, I’m not
your candidate.
But if you want real
investments in our neighborhoods, real progress in making our streets safer and
our communities stronger, and a Mayor who is willing to make these a priority, then
I’m asking for your vote on November 3rd.
Thank you. I'll take questions now.
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