Published on December 09, 2025
Councilman Wilson’s Statement on the State’s term expansion of the Local Economic Revitalization Tax Assistance (LERTA)
Pittsburgh, PA (December 2025)—The Downtown LERTA legislation that I authored and passed last year just got an incredible boost from the State legislature! Thanks to Senator Wayne Fontana and Governor Josh Shapiro, the tax exemption has been extended from 10 years to 20 years.
With the extension, Downtown can truly capitalize on converting office buildings into housing and/or commercial space. A 10-year abatement was not going to be enough to make a real impact on Downtown, but now with a 20-year abatement, projects can get the necessary funding needed for completion. There is now better alignment with the 20-year programs offered by the Housing Authority of Pittsburgh, meaning there will be more affordable and mixed-income housing available for Pittsburghers.
The change automatically takes effect on the Downtown LERTA as it was already written into the legislation in case the state made an adjustment to the maximum amount of time.
Ultimately, we're going to see more development in Downtown Pittsburgh because of this change at the state level. With an increase in projects, we will also see an increase in jobs and tax revenues to the City.
At a time when we are in a dire budgetary crisis, this is a bit of good news we desperately need.