Pittsburgh Public Schools’ financial instability is a topic constantly on the minds of teachers, students, and administrators alike. The specter of school closures, underfunded schools, and low teacher salaries is a crisis hanging over the head of a district already losing scores of students every year. Last December, the school board approved a $754 million dollar budget that avoided school closures by instead making cuts to special education and ESL, yet was still left with a deficit of $28 million.

One issue consistently raised by members of the school board is Pittsburgh Public Schools’ income tax diversion. Established in 2003 when the City of Pittsburgh was in financial trouble and being overseen by the state government, this program diverted 0.25% of the school district’s earned income taxes towards the City to try and stabilize its finances. Now, 20 years later, this diversion is still in effect. In 2024, the diversion is estimated to have provided the city with $25 million dollars that would have otherwise gone to Pittsburgh Public Schools.

Both democratic candidates in this year’s mayoral race have defended the diversion as necessary to keeping the City budget stable. The legality of the diversion, however, has recently come into question. Residents of the borough of Mount Oliver, an enclave surrounded entirely by the city of Pittsburgh, are included in PPS and therefore pay to it a portion of their taxes. A recent lawsuit filed by PPS and a Mt. Oliver resident argues that the diversion is unconstitutional, since residents of the borough are technically paying taxes to a city they don’t live in. They argue this is a violation of the state constitution’s uniformity clause that states “All taxes shall be uniform [...], within the territorial limits of the authority levying the tax.”

Should the court side with the plaintiff, it is unclear whether the diversion itself will be overturned or merely the diversion of Mt. Oliver residents’ taxes. When approached by The Dorsal, Superintendent Walters declined to comment due to ongoing litigation. When asked about the issue at the May 22nd PPS mayoral forum, both Democratic candidates supported retaining the diversion whereas Republican Tony Moreno appeared unfamiliar with the issue. Thomas West, the other Republican running for the office, did not respond to our request for comment.