Oct 10, 2014 By David Singer 2 min read

Allegheny County Council is reviewing the $839.2 million budget laid out by county executive Rich Fitzgerald, which doesn’t increase taxes and pushes a 2.7 percent increase over the 2014 budget. Council must approve a budget by Dec. 9, and public hearings with department stakeholders run Oct. 28-30 starting at 5 p.m. each day in the Gold Room in the county courthouse with public comment slated for the first half hour.

Citing three bond rating upgrades and no property millage increase for the 13th time in 14 years, Fitzgerald touted the 2015 budget as one that provides more funding for parks improvements and also looks to establish a park ranger service.

“There’s nearly $9 million for county parks,” Fitzgerald said.

The figure includes $400,000 allocated to create a Park Ranger authority for the nine county parks.

The program would free up 45 county police officers currently assigned to patrol parks grounds and would cost at least $1 million to run, according to Fitzgerald. The plan would start with 12 park rangers in 2015.

“I have concerns that it may affect our first responder force near the parks, but we need to look at it more closely to see what impact it’s actually going to have,” councilwoman Sue Means (R-Bethel Park) said.

For parks improvements, Fitzgerald said the budget contains $8.86 million for 2015 with about $4.7 million in bonuses coming from a Range Resources agreement to drill for gas under Deer Lakes Park. Then, 18 percent royalties will be paid when production starts.

As the county moves toward a second reading and subsequent vote on a proposed change to the restaurant inspection system from a pass-fail to a letter grade evaluation, the budget includes increases to hire three more health inspectors in addition to the current 18, a sign Fitzgerald is confident council will approve the restaurant measure.

For the second year, Fitzgerald said the Department of Emergency Services is covering for a deficit in state funds to run the county 911 dispatch center. Filling a $5 million funding gap, Fitzgerald said he’s trying to lobby Harrisburg to fix a “dated funding formula” ahead of the state’s budget in July.