The state Senate reconvened Monday, and the Pittsburgh plan — Mayor Tom Murphy’s plea to pull his chestnuts from the fire — is barely on the radar. New taxes for Pittsburgh aimed at suburbanites are on hold. Are lawmakers trying to punish the city facing a $60 million deficit• Murphy and City Council are Democrats and the Legislature is controlled by Republicans. Could that explain part of it• It could, but Democrat Sen. Jack Wagner of Beechview doesn’t think Murphy and company have tightened the city’s belt. In short, he doesn’t believe Murphy’s sincerity about instituting fiscal discipline. Who could? A fiscal crisis doesn’t develop overnight. The Trib has been reporting for years this was coming, and Murphy despises us for it; the truth is inconsistent with his “vision” — political survival at any cost. Murphy’s vision, for example, concluded a contract with the featherbedded fire department intended to guarantee his re-election, a fire department protected from layoffs. Since 1990, the number of people working in the city has declined by 12 percent to 275,000. Given the chance, a lot of people would rather work someplace else, including city residents. And that isn’t because we’ve been picking on poor, put-upon Tom Murphy and his rubber-stamp City Council. It’s because he and his party have failed — spectacularly. Pittsburgh can’t afford Tom Murphy for another day. If taxpayers give him the money, he’ll just do it again.

---

Copyright ©2026— Trib Total Media, LLC (TribLIVE.com)

---