Pittsburgh Community Reinvestment Group (PCRG)

The head of the federal agency that regulates mortgage finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is stepping down. The timing of James Lockhart’s departure from the Federal Housing Finance Agency is not yet certain and a successor hasn’t been named, according to an administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity Wednesday because the… Continue reading »

Gov. Ed Rendell today signed a partial 2009-10 state budget that calls for spending $11 billion, allowing most of the state’s 77,000 workers to finally get paid. But he vetoed an even greater amount of proposed spending — $13 billion, including money for state-owned colleges, community colleges, libraries and the state Legislature itself. Read the… Continue reading »

Many communities will be hosting block parties, cookouts and festivals in celebration of the 26th annual National Night Out Against Crime on Tuesday. Sponsored by the National Association of Town Watch, the goal of Night Out is to raise crime-prevention awareness, increase participation in local anti-crime programs and strengthen police-citizen relationships. Learn more about what events took place… Continue reading »

The government’s $50 billion program to ease the foreclosure crisis is helping only a tiny fraction of struggling homeowners. As of July, only 9 percent of eligible borrowers had seen their mortgage payments reduced. And a progress report on the plan Tuesday showed that 10 lenders had not changed a single loan. Read the full… Continue reading »

A proposal for a 16 percent increase in the state income tax is dead because of strong opposition from Western Pennsylvania lawmakers, House Democratic leaders said yesterday. The group of 20 or so conservative Democrats, called the Blue Dogs, “wanted us to take the PIT [personal income tax] increase off the table,” said House Speaker… Continue reading »

California’s budget debacle holds a lesson for America, but one we will probably ignore. It’s easy to attribute the state’s protracted budget stalemate, now temporarily resolved with about $26 billion of spending cuts and accounting gimmicks, to the deep recession and California’s peculiar politics. Up to a point, that’s true. Representing an eighth of the… Continue reading »

If House and Senate conferees aren’t close to a new state budget by Monday, Gov. Ed Rendell will ask the House to enact a $27.1 billion proposal the Senate has already approved, and then he will use a line-item veto to eliminate three-fourths of its expenditures. Read the full Post-Gazette article here.

A six-member, House-Senate conference committee will hold its first meeting tomorrow but it likely will be days, or even several weeks, before a budget for fiscal 2009-10, which began July 1, will be completely worked out. Read the full article from the Post-Gazette here.

Congressman Barney Frank wants to prevent unemployed homeowners from losing their houses by giving them government money to pay their mortgages. The Newton Democrat, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, will hold a hearing in Washington today on his proposal to spend $2 billion to prevent foreclosures on borrowers who don’t qualify for other… Continue reading »