We've been successful in continuing to effectively reduce expenses. He pointed back to the mayor, saying Murphy is ultimately responsible for the city's finances. We follow their lead,'' he said, referring to Murphy's administration. Pittsburgh's leaders say they won't let the city go bankrupt. They will raise taxes or other fees before they let that happen.
Critics say the officials are just putting off finding a solution.
Until the hammer falls and they're absolutely forced to do it, they won't do it,'' said Jake Haulk, managing director of the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy, a think tank on the North Side. The budget was balanced and the immediate crisis passed, so no one pushed to reform the city's finances. The era of fiscal illusion had begun. David Y. Miller, the mayor's budget director from 1996 to 1998, said that while selling the city's water assets helped in the short term, it hurt in the long run. One of the bad things is that it creates the illusion of better fiscal health,'' said Miller, now an associate dean at the University of Pittsburgh's Graduate School of Public and International Affairs.