Allegheny County Executive Sara Innamorato speaks in front of local government, labor and nonprofit officials on June 5, 2025 at the Pittsburgh Job Corps Center in Highland Park. (Photo by Charlie Wolfson/PublicSource)
Officials rallied outside the Job Corps center in Highland Park, which the Trump administration is targeting for closure.
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Pittsburgh and Allegheny County officials announced a new task force to organize local government’s response to what they characterized as cruel and irresponsible federal budget cuts ordered by President Donald Trump since his January inauguration.
“We’ve seen so many times this year, the Trump administration seems committed to chaos and cruelty in their governing style, and it’s often targeting people with the least means to defend themselves,” County Executive Sara Innamorato said at a Thursday press conference.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The task force’s creation was stirred by the announcement of the closure of the federally funded Job Corps center in Highland Park, one of more than 90 nationwide that provide job training and housing to low-income students. Innamorato said the task force includes city and county officials, state lawmakers, leaders from the private sector and organized labor.
“We’ve all done this with our hands” this year, said labor leader Darrin Kelly while throwing his arms in the air in exasperation. “Those days are over. What we see here is saying, ‘If you’re not going to take care of people, we will.’”
The Job Corps closure announcement is the latest in a series of Trump administration cuts to rock the Pittsburgh region, following reductions in scientific research funding to local universities, the cutoff of aid for resettled refugees, proposals to drop funding to public broadcasters, the planned end of grant funding for affordable housing development and more.
Local officials present Thursday did not have details on how the task force could marshal enough resources to fill gaps caused by the federal government’s retreat.
Trump’s 2026 budget proposal would cut domestic spending by almost 20%, and his tax-and-spending focused “One Big Beautiful Bill” approved by the U.S. House last month would remove about $100 million from the county’s budget, Innamorato said, though that number could change if the Senate amends the bill.
The city and county were strapped for cash even before Trump took office. The city is expected to spend down much of its reserve fund over the next five years and the county had to hike taxes last year to stop deficit spending.
“That’s the reason why we’re bringing in a diverse set of partners,” Innamorato said, saying the county would “leverage” philanthropic and business entities to support the response. But “there’s no replacement in local tax dollars to replace cuts from the federal government, so we have to mobilize and we have to think creatively in this moment.”
Innamorato said she did not know how much it would cost to replace educational and housing services provided by the Job Corps center.
Jake Pawlak, Pittsburgh’s deputy mayor, said local leaders are morally obligated to “step into the breach,” even without the federal government’s ample resources.
“I’m confident we have the resources to help these individuals” at the Job Corps, Pawlak said, “but to sustain these efforts locally when they’re no longer being sustained federally … those are unanswered questions.”
He said local leaders should not count on relief if a more friendly administration eventually enters the White House.
“If history is any indication, I don’t think we should count on that to be the solution. I think we need to plan for the long term, more local solutions to these challenges.”
Charlie Wolfson is PublicSource’s local government reporter. He can be reached at charlie@publicsource.org.
This article first appeared on PublicSource and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
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