The University of Pittsburgh will contribute $5 million to city government over the next five years, the school announced Monday. It’s the second major Pittsburgh nonprofit to commit money to the city since Mayor Corey O’Connor took office in January, after UPMC gifted $10 million for ambulances. The city also received a $2 million gift from PNC Bank for snow removal vehicles.

“Mayor O’Connor has already expressed appreciation for the vital role the University plays in Pittsburgh, and from the first day of his administration, has sought opportunities to partner with Pitt for the benefit of the city,” Pitt Chancellor Joan Gabel said in a press release.

The money is earmarked for three areas central to O’Connor’s agenda: parks, business corridor development and public safety. It’s the latest chapter in Pittsburgh leaders’ longtime quest to secure more money from local nonprofits, the five largest of which are exempt from taxes on property assessed at $4.3 billion, according to a 2022 report from the city and county controllers.

O’Connor thanked Pitt and phrased the contribution as a “generous gift,” rather than connecting it to the university’s tax-exempt status. He used similar rhetoric after UPMC announced its gift in January.

The abundance of university- and hospital-owned property in Pittsburgh, while seen as an employment driver, squeezes the city’s budget. 

The “big five” nonprofits (UPMC, Pitt, Carnegie Mellon University, Highmark/AHN and Duquesne University), if they weren’t exempt, would owe around $34 million in property taxes annually, according to the controllers’ report. That figure is greater than the budget hole City Council filled last year by raising property taxes and greater than the additional budget hole O’Connor announced this month.

“We absolutely need contributions from nonprofits,” said City Council Finance Chair Erika Strassburger after O’Connor briefed reporters on the city’s financial predicament. 

UPMC’s ambulance gift met broad approval from public officials, but some community organizers criticized the deal for falling short of what the group should pay the city.

“Pittsburgh homeowners just agreed to pay $28 million a year in increased property tax for perpetuity while UPMC is agreeing to make a one-time contribution of $10 million,” said Pittsburgh United Executive Director Alex Wallach Hanson in January. 

The Pitt contribution, at $1 million per year, represents about 10% of what the university would pay if its property holdings were taxable. Many agreements reached between other cities and local institutions, known as payment-in-lieu-of-tax (PILOT) agreements, are for 25-50% of tax liability.

Public safety investments will be “directed toward areas the [O’Connor] administration determines will make the most meaningful difference,” according to the release. The announcement did not include detail about how the funds would be distributed among the three priorities or which parks or business corridors would see investments. 

Charlie Wolfson is the local government reporter for Pittsburgh’s Public Source. He can be reached at charlie@publicsource.org.

Close window

Republish this article

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

You may republish this Pittsburgh's Public Source story in full online or in print under the conditions stated below. You may also choose to republish the first 12 paragraphs with imagery and link to PublicSource for the full story. All you need to do is copy the HTML code we provide on this page and paste it into your CMS. We strongly encourage you to copy the code and paste it directly into a code editor. In Wordpress, press the three dots in the upper right of the Post and choose Code editor. That should give you the story text, along with photos from the body of the article. Here are your obligations under our republishing guidelines:

• Give us credit, in this format: “by [Author Name(s)], Pittsburgh's Public Source”.
• Include a line at the top of the story that reads: “Pittsburgh's Public Source is an independent nonprofit newsroom serving the Pittsburgh region. Sign up for our free newsletters.”
• In the html code of the page, include a line of javascript that helps us keep track of hits. It’s already in the code below.

Let us know when you use our work by sending an email to ds@publicsource.org. By republishing our story, you agree to the following conditions:

• You can’t edit, cut or alter the story, except to suit your in-house style (e.g. % vs. “percent,” honorifics, etc).
• You must not resell the story or sell ads against the story. It’s fine to publish the story on a page that’s surrounded by previously sold ads, however.
• Please exclude our work from being published or syndicated to third-party platforms or apps like Newsbreak under your publication name, when possible

If you share the story or a link to the story on social media, please tag us on Twitter (@publicsourcepa), Instagram (@publicsource), Facebook (@publicsource) or TikTok (@publicsource). We reserve the right to deny, revoke or limit the rights conveyed herein for any reason, including (but not limited to) instances in which these conditions are not met or the reproduced material is not presented in a responsible manner.

Pitt to give city $5 million over five years for O’Connor agenda

by Charlie Wolfson, Pittsburgh's Public Source
March 30, 2026

<h1>Pitt to give city $5 million over five years for O’Connor agenda</h1> <p class="byline">by Charlie Wolfson, Pittsburgh's Public Source <br />March 30, 2026</p> <p>The University of Pittsburgh will contribute $5 million to city government over the next five years, the school announced Monday. It’s the second major Pittsburgh nonprofit to commit money to the city since Mayor Corey O’Connor took office in January, after <a href="https://www.publicsource.org/upmc-gifts-pittsburgh-millions-new-ambulances/">UPMC gifted $10 million for ambulances</a>. The city also received a $2 million gift from PNC Bank for snow removal vehicles.</p> <p>“Mayor O’Connor has already expressed appreciation for the vital role the University plays in Pittsburgh, and from the first day of his administration, has sought opportunities to partner with Pitt for the benefit of the city,” Pitt Chancellor Joan Gabel said in a press release.</p> <p>The money is earmarked for three areas central to O’Connor’s agenda: parks, business corridor development and public safety. It’s the latest chapter in Pittsburgh leaders’ longtime quest to secure more money from local nonprofits, the five largest of which are exempt from taxes on property assessed at $4.3 billion, according to a 2022 report from the city and county controllers.</p> <p>O’Connor thanked Pitt and phrased the contribution as a “generous gift,” rather than connecting it to the university’s tax-exempt status. He used similar rhetoric after UPMC announced its gift in January.</p> <p>The abundance of university- and hospital-owned property in Pittsburgh, while seen as an employment driver, squeezes the city’s budget.&nbsp;</p> <p>The “big five” nonprofits (UPMC, Pitt, Carnegie Mellon University, Highmark/AHN and Duquesne University), if they weren’t exempt, would owe around $34 million in property taxes annually, according to the controllers’ report. That figure is greater than the budget hole City Council filled last year by raising property taxes and greater than the additional budget hole O’Connor announced this month.</p> <p>“We absolutely need contributions from nonprofits,” said City Council Finance Chair Erika Strassburger after O’Connor briefed reporters on the city’s financial predicament.&nbsp;</p> <p>UPMC’s ambulance gift met broad approval from public officials, but some community organizers criticized the deal for falling short of what the group should pay the city.</p> <p>“Pittsburgh homeowners just agreed to pay $28 million a year in increased property tax for perpetuity while UPMC is agreeing to make a one-time contribution of $10 million,” said Pittsburgh United Executive Director Alex Wallach Hanson in January.&nbsp;</p> <p>The Pitt contribution, at $1 million per year, represents about 10% of what the university would pay if its property holdings were taxable. Many agreements reached between other cities and local institutions, known as payment-in-lieu-of-tax (PILOT) agreements, are for 25-50% of tax liability.</p> <p>Public safety investments will be “directed toward areas the [O’Connor] administration determines will make the most meaningful difference,” according to the release. The announcement did not include detail about how the funds would be distributed among the three priorities or which parks or business corridors would see investments.&nbsp;</p> <p><em>Charlie Wolfson is the local government reporter for Pittsburgh’s Public Source. He can be reached at </em><em>charlie@publicsource.org</em><em>.</em></p> <p>This &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://www.publicsource.org/university-pittsburgh-pitt-contribution-city/&quot;&gt;article&lt;/a&gt; first appeared on &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://www.publicsource.org&quot;&gt;Pittsburgh&#039;s Public Source&lt;/a&gt; and is republished here under a &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/&quot;&gt;Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;img src=&quot;https://i0.wp.com/www.publicsource.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/cropped-ps_circle_favicon_blue.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;amp;ssl=1&quot; style=&quot;width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;&quot;&gt;</p> &lt;img id=&quot;republication-tracker-tool-source&quot; src=&quot;https://www.publicsource.org/?republication-pixel=true&amp;post=1331143&amp;amp;ga4=G-CCLXQK5C14&quot; style=&quot;width:1px;height:1px;&quot;&gt;&lt;script&gt; PARSELY = { autotrack: false, onload: function() { PARSELY.beacon.trackPageView({ url: &quot;https://www.publicsource.org/university-pittsburgh-pitt-contribution-city/&quot;, urlref: window.location.href }); } } &lt;/script&gt; &lt;script id=&quot;parsely-cfg&quot; src=&quot;//cdn.parsely.com/keys/publicsource.org/p.js&quot;&gt;&lt;/script&gt;

Copy to Clipboard

1