G-20 Summit Cost Still Having Impact On City Budget

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- Pittsburgh City Council has been looking over the costs of the G-20 Summit held here in September of 2009 and found that they were not as high as expected. However, the costs are still having an impact on the city's budget.

You may remember all the controversy about the expense of the G-20 Summit. Now, City Council has a final figure.

"Turns out it was twelve million, fifty three thousand, eight hundred and forty eight dollars, but the city's books still show us with a $16 million encumbrance to that," said Doug Shields, of Pittsburgh City Council.

The $12 million has already been reimbursed by federal and state agencies, and it is lower than the $16 million budgeted; but even so, Council says the budget figure still on the books affects the city's ability to figure out what resources it has.

At a time of tight budgets, keeping old numbers on the books can affect the city's perception of what's available and its ability to devote resources elsewhere. There is still some question about $700,000 not yet claimed by contractors.

"We have accounts like this that go back into the 1990s. Where you're showing technically from a bookkeeper's standpoint that there's an encumbrance here when in fact the project was closed, the money's repaid," said Shields. "There's some encumbrances that have actual dollars attached to them for purposes of bookkeeping an actual number attached that really is meaningless."

Council says it wants to settle a lot more outstanding budget items particularly as it moves toward modernizing the budget process.

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