Here is my summary of County Council’s second 2026 budget hearing held on November 12th, 2025. Members Botta, Catena, Filiaggi, Grzybek, Hallam, Klein, Naccarati-Chapkis, Palmiere, Palmosina were present.
During the hearing we heard from CCAC and the administration. Brief summaries from each are below.
CCAC – Dr. Bullock and Vice President Jacobs presented. The County aid for CCAC is proposed to increase from $36.04M in 2025 to $36.76M in 2026, for an increase of 2%. This was CCAC’s full ask from the County. CCAC experienced a large loss in enrollment during COVID (roughly 27%) and has been working hard to get students back. By focusing on their career and technical education programs like mechatronics and culinary arts, CCAC has significantly increased enrollment the last two years. The current student body is made up of 45% in career programs and 55% in transfer programs. Out of the 20,730 CCAC students from Allegheny County, 1,440 are from District 5. One specific item of success is CCAC’s nursing program. 92% of nursing students have jobs within 6 months of graduation, and the program ranks 7th out of 536 Associate Degree of Nursing programs in the Northeast.
Administration – County Manager John Fournier and Budget Director Tim Cox presented. As previously discussed, the county budget is proposed to increase by 1.52%, requiring no tax increase and not resulting in any layoffs. There were a number of cost cutting items that allowed this budget to be feasible. Among them included removing 35 funded positions within the County that are chronically vacant, reducing staffing ratios at the Kane Assisted Living Facilities, performing a healthcare audit that removed 250 dependents that were no longer eligible for county healthcare, and centralizing IT operations to reduce redundancies within individual departments. This current financial situation has caused the County to receive an Aa3 rating from Moody’s and an AA rating from S&P, with a stable outlook for both.