匹兹堡市议员提出预算改革方案 增设季度预算会与公开公务卡账目
在2027年预算草案紧绷、城市未来财政预测堪忧的背景下，匹兹堡市议员10月6日（周二）中午举行记者会，推出一揽子预算改革方案，包含尚未正式提出的法案与内部政策变更，目标是让城市预算流程更透明、更可持续。
市议员埃丽卡·斯特拉斯伯格（Erika Strassburger）说：“修复结构性预算问题需要整个政府一起上，这些措施将收紧财政问责、改善我们的支出习惯。它们解决不了我们面临的所有问题，但对重建居民对市政府的信任很重要。”
改革内容包括：一项即将提出的法案，要求市议会每年按季度召开预算会议（市议会过去一年已在这样做，立法将使其制度化），让收入缺口或成本超支提前暴露、各部门协同主动应对；市议会预算办公室将为议员及幕僚提供预算流程培训；市长科里·奥康纳（Corey O'Connor）办公室与市审计长蕾切尔·海斯勒（Rachael Heisler）办公室达成协议，审计长办公室将获得城市预算软件Questica的访问权限——此前它一直没有。
海斯勒说，这些数据将让她的办公室更快发现问题，“对市民、纳税人以及与市府做生意的供应商来说，这都是好事，也会改善支出流程。”
改革还涉及市政公务卡（p-cards）：避免重复、明确什么可报销，并建立公开的公务卡支出仪表盘，按部门、供应商、金额、日期公布数据；同时鼓励各部门在预算周期结束前花完当年拨款以腾出资金。
市议员芭布·沃里克（Barb Warwick）将提出法案，明确市议会对“联合采购协议”（co-op agreements）的审批角色——即市府“搭便车”采用其他政府机构已有合同的协议。她说：“当这些协议金额很大、或延续多年时，市议会应该像审议其他支出一样看到并投票。”
背景是奥康纳提出的2027年预算草案预计出现连年赤字，若不解决，几年内将耗尽市府储蓄。议员们认为，这部分源于前市长埃德·盖尼（Ed Gainey）提交的支出计划掩盖了财政问题的真实规模。
该方案由沃里克、安东尼·科格希尔（Anthony Coghill）与斯特拉斯伯格联署，市议员卡里·莫斯利（Khari Mosley）、金·萨利内特罗（Kim Salinetro）、鲍勃·查兰德（Bob Charland）出席发布会表示支持。莫斯利说：“关键是大家都在推动问责、推动透明、推动政府各部门协作沟通，最终是为了公众信任。”奥康纳市长也到场支持：“这些是好法案，是20年前就该做的改革。很惭愧我们没早做。要扭转局面，靠的是透明。”
来源：90.5 WESA。
Pittsburgh Councilors Propose Budget Reforms: Quarterly Budget Meetings, Public P-Card Dashboard
In the wake of a tight draft budget for 2027 and worrisome fiscal predictions for the city's future, Pittsburgh City Councilors introduced a package of reforms at a midday press conference on Tuesday, October 6, aimed at making the city's budget process more transparent and sustainable. The reforms are a mix of yet-to-be-introduced bills and internal policy changes related to financial practices.
"Fixing our structural budget issues requires a whole-of-government approach, and we expect these measures to tighten fiscal accountability and our spending habits," City Councilor Erika Strassburger said. "These reforms will not solve all of our problems that we face, but they are important to improve residents' trust in city government."
The reforms include an upcoming bill requiring the Council to gather quarterly throughout the year for meetings on the city budget. Council has already been doing so for the past year, but a bill mandating the meetings would make the practice official, so revenue shortfalls or cost overruns come to light ahead of time. Council's budget office is also working on training for Councilors and their staff on budget processes.
Among the internal changes is an agreement between Mayor Corey O'Connor's office and City Controller Rachael Heisler's office to share more city budget data with the controller. Heisler's office would gain access to Questica, the City's budgeting software, which it has not had access to before. "The information that this will provide our office will allow us to see problems more quickly," Heisler said. "At the end of the day, this is a really good thing for city residents, for city taxpayers, and also for vendors who do business with the city."
Also forthcoming are internal policy changes to how the city handles p-cards, or city credit cards, focused on avoiding redundancies and clarifying what is appropriate for reimbursement, plus a public p-card dashboard with data on spending by department, vendor, amount and date. Other internal changes would encourage departments to spend down their allocations each year before the next budget period starts.
Council also expects legislation that will clarify Council's role in approving certain kinds of contracts. Councilor Barb Warwick said her bill would clarify the handling of co-op agreements — "agreements where another body of government already has a contract for a given good or service and the city 'piggybacks' onto that agreement." She said: "We want to make sure that when the numbers are large for those, or that those agreements are going on for multiple years, that council is seeing that and is voting on that just like we do for all other spending."
The moves come as city officials reckon with a 2027 draft budget, proposed by Mayor Corey O'Connor, that projects a series of deficits which, unless addressed, will empty out the city's savings account within the next few years — reflecting concerns with how fiscal matters were handled under former Mayor Ed Gainey.
The proposals were co-sponsored by Warwick, Councilor Anthony Coghill and Strassburger, with Councilors Khari Mosley, Kim Salinetro and Bob Charland joining them at the press conference. "I think it's just important to show that we're all pushing for accountability, we're all pushing for transparency, and we're all pushing for collaboration and communication amongst the various branches of government, because ultimately it's about the public trust," Mosley said. Mayor O'Connor also stood with councilors in support: "These are great bills. These are great changes that needed to probably happen 20 years ago. Shame on us for not doing it a long time ago. In order for us to turn this around, it's transparency that's going to help in the long term."
Source: 90.5 WESA.
图片来源：图片来源：Wikimedia Commons，Cbaile19 摄，CC0 授权（匹兹堡市县大楼实景）
