Resources

Influencing The Capital Budget

A fresh bike lane on Forbes Ave. in Squirrel Hill.

They say that if you want to see what a Mayor values, open up their Capital Budget.

Inside you’ll find a city’s top priorities for improving and maintaining publicly-owned assets such as streets, buildings, parks, trails, bridges, steps, and retaining walls. The Capital Budget is the way that our representatives organize, plan and allocate our limited amount of public funds. Some say this is the people’s money as it mostly comes from tax revenue that we all pay, so it only makes sense that the people have some say in how it’s spent.

Budgets are created by the Mayor based on input from City Council as well as from residents. Mayors have used many different ways to solicit input from the public, from public meetings to online tools. Ultimately, City Council will have to vote to approve a Mayor’s budget, and all that’s in it.

Influencing the Capital Budget is a great place for safe-streets advocates to use their time and energy, as many safety improvements such as bike lanes, intersections, a steps rehab or traffic calming, come directly from these Capital Funds. 

Focusing on the Capital Budget is a great tactic to achieve improvements in your neighborhood. This is done by formally requesting an improvement you’d like to see by sending a letter to your Councilperson and/or the Director of the Department of Mobility and Infrastructure. While a request is just one tactic to achieve a goal, other tactics are often necessary to move your idea forward, and to ensure that your project idea is more competitive within the Capital Budgeting process.

→ See our Grassroots Advocacy Toolkit for more info on winning improvements in your community

Even if your project isn’t picked, making requests in the Capital Budget will help ensure that the overall pie for safe streets is maintained, or ideally, expanded. We cannot understate how much your safe streets request helps ensure that everyone in the city sees more money dedicated to street improvements. Without a demonstration of support, a City won’t allocate funds, and without funding, these projects simply won’t happen. 

So, let’s start with how the City of Pittsburgh defines a Capital Project:

Capital Project – Any project funded by public monies to design, build, restore, retain, or purchase any City-owned asset that is expected to provide a long-term public benefit or propose physical improvements in an element of the City’s infrastructure. Capital Projects shall have a minimum value of fifty thousand dollars ($50,000) and a minimum useful life of five years. Capital Projects financed through debt should have a minimum useful life no shorter than the length of debt service.

  • Think big and ask big, but be reasonable. You won’t get what you don’t ask for, and you are the eyes and ears of what’s going on in your neighborhood.
  • Infrastructure costs more than you think, so a project such as a bike lane or an intersection improvement can easily cost $50K. For instance, a single speed hump can cost $10K alone.
  • A successful project request will already have strong neighborhood support, and little opposition. If you think opposition exists, then you’ll know you have work to do to help build a consensus. Likewise, it will only help to do the work to demonstrate public support. 
  • There are some tools available to help you make your case. For instance, DOMI recently created a Crash Data Dashboard and Map that you may find useful in demonstrating a dangerous intersection. Find more useful resources here.
  • Reference the Mayor’s priorities for the 2025 budget and make the case in your letter for how your request addresses as many of the priorities as reasonably possible.
  • A good request will tie into other city plans. Reference these documents as they have a demonstrated level of community outreach and approval, and be sure to mention that a given project is already included in an existing plan.

Scoring

When picking Capital Budget projects, the city has identified the criteria that they are looking for to help them make decisions. The better a project scores, the better chance it has in becoming reality through the Capital process. 

Use the following chart to help you figure out which ideas you have will make for a good Capital Budget request. Or view this chart in the 2024 capital budget here.

Table of the city's criteria and scoring for capital budget projects. Use the previous link to view a version accessible to screen readers.

Other Tips

  • Check out the form that your councilperson will be filling out and submitting to the Mayor’s Office with details about the projects they propose, many of which come from community members like you! You can make it easy for them by including language in your letter that they can copy and paste into this form, especially the Project Description and Project Justification sections.
    • Specifically, help them answer these questions:
      • Why is this project necessary? 
      • What is the impact of not doing this project? 
      • How does this project align with the Mayor’s 2024 Capital Budget Priorities? 
  • Find out or ask your neighborhood planner/councilperson what else is being considered for your district?
    • Your requests will be competing against other projects in your district but not necessarily what other districts are requesting.
    • Consider if there’s ways to partner with other groups in your district.
  • Make sure you schedule a meeting with your Councilperson or their staffer to discuss your requests. This makes sure that they have seen them, understand what issues they will address, and the positive impact that they will have on the neighborhood.
  • See our archive of Capital Budget Request Letters from previous years for inspiration, and see a template letter here.

Typical Capital Budget Timeline: 

  • Spring/Summer: Public engagement to identify priorities (meetings, Engage page, etc)
  • By end of May: Submit capital budget request letters
  • Summer: Requests and ideas are submitted by Councilpersons, Department Directos, and the public. 
  • August – Sept: Proposals are analyzed by the Office of Management and Budgeting (OMB), and they refine the budget based off of requests, politics, needs, etc.
  • September: Mayor submits preliminary budget to Council by 9/30
  • October/November: Public meetings to share the preliminary budget, and OMB makes adjustments
  • November: Mayor formally presents budget to Council.
  • November/December: Council reviews budget line by line with Department Directors, then votes and ideally passes the budget by 12/31.

Once you’re ready to send your letter, email it to: