One of the first things Allegheny County’s new executive did was give some full-time workers a raise to $18 per hour with plans to increase it to $22 by 2027.
When asked how much it would cost, Sara Innamorato couldn’t answer.
After less than a year on the job, her communications director got a $15,000 raise to $150,000 a year. There’s also a deputy communications director and six public information officers. The price tag for all these communicators is just under $700,000.
And that’s just what we’ve learned so far.
The county executive's 2025 budget proposal included an increase in overall spending of more than 3 percent when the county had a $81 million deficit and a higher projection for next year.
Instead of budget cuts and wage freezes, Innamorato asked for a huge property tax hike and wound up getting 36 percent.
Reasonable people agree a property tax increase is needed after ten years without one, but Innamorato demanded a lot while offering nothing but more spending