Pittsburgh City Council Public Hearing on Bill 0544 – Mechanical Amusement Devices Tax – June 23, 2026
Pittsburgh City Council Public Hearing on Bill 0544 – Mechanical Amusement Devices Tax – June 23, 2026
This public hearing, convened by Councilman Anthony Coghill (sponsor), addressed Bill 0544, which would amend the Pittsburgh Code of Ordinances to create a new chapter (Chapter 774) imposing a tax and licensing requirement on mechanical amusement devices (commonly known as skills games). The hearing took place on Tuesday, June 23, 2026, at 6:45 PM. No members of the public registered to speak, and no other council members were present. Councilman Coghill provided an overview of the legislation's background, rationale, and current status.
Discussion Items
- Councilman Coghill explained that the tax was originally conceived over a year ago as an alternative to increasing property taxes. He noted that the city had been researching and developing the proposal for that period.
- He referenced the Pennsylvania Supreme Court's recent ruling that skills games are gambling devices, which gave the state legislature up to four months to enact regulation or taxation. The city is aware that the state may act, but the specifics remain uncertain (e.g., a flat fee, a 52% tax, or a 35% tax).
- Coghill stated that the city decided to continue pursuing its own local tax in case the state does not act, so that Pittsburgh would be prepared to begin collection and budget for an estimated surplus of $2–3 million annually.
- He acknowledged that the exact number of devices in the city is unknown, and that the administration (including PLI and finance departments) is meeting weekly to plan for tax collection and staffing needs.
- Coghill emphasized that if the state supersedes the local legislation, the city's effort may become moot, but for now the council intends to proceed.
Key Outcomes
- No public testimony was offered; the hearing was held solely to receive input, which was not provided.
- No vote was taken; this was a public hearing, not a voting session.
- The bill remains under consideration. Councilman Coghill indicated that the city will continue to develop the tax infrastructure and monitor state action. The next steps include ongoing administrative planning and potential future council action on the bill.
Meeting Transcript
Good afternoon and welcome to Pittsburgh City Council's cable cast public hearing for Tuesday, June 23rd, 2026, relative to Bill 0544. I'm Councilman Anthony Coghill, sponsored a bill. And if I will turn it over to our clerk, please read the title of the bills. Bill 544, ordinance amending and supplementing the Pittsburgh Code of Ordinances. Title 7, Business Licensing, Article 9, Amusement Businesses with a New Chapter. Chapter 774, Mechanical Amusement Devices Tax and Licenses. Thank you, Madam Clerk. Our first order of business will be a brief introduction of the legislation. Yeah, well, I'll comment on it briefly. So, you know, we set out pursuing this uh tax for additional revenue. Oh, I dating back probably over a year ago when council was debating whether to um you know increase our property taxes. So this was really an alternative for me to begin with, and um I I didn't really didn't support the property tax, and uh, you know, this was just another way of kind of thinking outside the box to create another revenue source for the city of Pittsburgh. As we all know now that um the state supreme court deemed that the skills games are gambling devices, and not knowing, um, and that state they gave the state legislature up to four months to really come up with uh regulation or tax or whatever they are plan to pursue. It's no secret, we feel that the um we we anticipated that the state would be taking this up, maybe not so so quickly, but the state that they would be taking this up, but there's no sure answer as to what they might do. Well, you know, we hear back and forth with state legislatures one flat fee, others want to tax at 52 percent, others want to tax at a lower rate at 35%. So um, not knowing of course what the state was going to do, we decided to continue down the path that we've started on over a year ago because we had uh a lot of work and research involved in it, and if case in the case that the state doesn't act on it, we will be situated to start collecting this tax and hopefully budgeting for our next years to come at a uh surplus of we hope two to three million dollars. Um a lot of those questions are unanswered right now, as to because we don't have a short count as to how many devices there are. Um we are talking through, we're meeting on a weekly basis with the administration and the necessary department heads, PLI, finance, as to uh, you know, the um people that will need in order to collect this tax. So we're hard at work at that. We're gonna continue to pursue it until told otherwise. Obviously, if the state supersedes our legislation, then um it may all be for naught. But uh at this point we're deep enough into it that we're gonna continue to pursue it, and um again, not knowing whether the state's gonna how they're gonna act on it, uh, we thought it prudent to continue to um pursue. So with that, that's a brief uh synopsis of where we're at in the whole situation. And um that will be that. And any comments from our guests. So uh our next order of business will be testimony from our registered speakers. Please give your name and neighborhood of public record. Each registered speaker will have three minutes to address council. I do not see any registered speakers and nobody has signed up and nobody is online. Is that right, um, Madam Clerk? Okay. So uh so there are no registered speakers for the record. And uh having exhausted that and not having that, we will um. Uh seeing no further speakers, for seeing no speakers, we will move on to comments from members of council, which there are only one member, and that's me. And you have just heard my comments. So, having exhausted the business of this public hearing, this meeting is adjourned.
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