By the mid-1980s, about 100,000 manufacturing workers in the Pittsburgh region lost their jobs. The towns that were home to the shuttered factories faced diminished property and sales tax revenue. In response, then-state Rep. David Sweet introduced the Municipalities Financial Recovery Act, known as Act 47.
Act 47 designees are assigned a coordinator and adopt a restrictive spending plan in exchange for the capability to raise earned income taxes and favored status on state grant applications. Oversight restrictions vary, but one consequence of Act 47 is that some cannot afford the salary and benefit expenses of a full-time police force because of the act’s spending restrictions.
Since the state established Act 47 oversight in 1987, 31 municipalities have come under Act 47; 17 remain under Act 47 today, including three municipalities on the outskirts of Pittsburgh that have had the designation for nearly three decades: Braddock, Duquesne and Rankin.
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