McKeesport dealing with economic toll of coronavirus

By JEFF STITT
jstitt@yourmvi.com
McKeesport Mayor Michael Cherepko briefly talked during Wednesday’s in-person council meeting about worries he has concerning lost and delayed revenues as a result of coronavirus-mitigation efforts.
“I’d be lying if I didn’t say I’m very concerned for the economy,” Cherepko said. “I’m very concerned with the deficits that we have here in the city and whether those deficits are going to grow, which from a commonsense standpoint is going to happen.
“People don’t realize the ripple effect. When you lose sales tax revenue, our revenue goes down. Business privilege tax, they’re not doing as much business, that revenue goes down. Earned Income Tax, people are out of work, that revenue goes down.”
Like municipalities across the country, the mayor said, McKeesport is having to “work with” residents and business owners who are unemployed, have had to close their businesses or have had their hours cut as a result of pandemic mitigation efforts and are having trouble paying their property taxes and for municipal service fees.
“We are trying to collect the revenues we can collect and will continue to try to do that,” he said.

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