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Newspaper publisher Richard Scaife has pledged $100,000 for the city of McKeesport to demolish dangerous and abandoned buildings.

Officials made the announcement during Wednesday night's city council meeting.

Tearing down blighted structures has been a cornerstone of the city's redevelopment program for several years. Mayor Jim Brewster and others say dilapidated houses --- many of them abandoned long after their owners died or moved away --- depress the real estate market, provide havens for criminals and drive the surrounding neighborhoods into decline.

Scaife, owner of the Tribune-Review of Greensburg and Pittsburgh and several groups of suburban newspapers, has made gifts to several McKeesport-area charities since purchasing the Daily News in 2007. He served as grand marshal of the city's "Salute to Santa" parade on Nov. 22.

Brewster said Scaife told him about the gift during the parade.

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Dozens of properties around the city await demolition, including 18 approved Wednesday night by city council. The most recent batch includes five houses on Evans Avenue (800, 806, 807, 818 and 1221), three on Versailles Avenue (3111, 3301 and 3215), and two on Soles Street (1219 and 1222).

Tearing down a house generally costs between $6,000 and $10,000, Brewster said Wednesday. Municipalities can place a lien against a property that's been torn down and attempt to recover the cost if and when the land is sold, but in practice, most of the liens go uncollected.

The money cannot be used to offset revenue shortfalls that in December forced the city to eliminate 11 positions, Brewster said. The grant money has been pledged toward demolition.

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The ongoing recession that has hampered credit and caused home and retail sales to decline remains a serious concern, the mayor said.

"The monster is getting bigger," Brewster said. "We now have a worldwide calamity, which makes our situation even worse ... We have faced some serious dilemmas successfully over the past five years, but the next two or three years are going to be more challenging."

Lax collection practices bear at least some of the blame, city officials admitted. City Controller Ray Malinchak said McKeesport is owed at least $8 million in taxes and another $2 million in delinquent garbage, sewerage and other municipal service fees.

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The city is working to update its collection procedures, which Brewster said are outdated and "unsophisticated," but some problems remain outside the control of McKeesport and other municipalities.

For instance, state income tax reports are two years old when they're forwarded to the city, he said, and many delinquent taxpayers have changed addresses before McKeesport learns about them.

(Act 32 of 2008, which consolidates Pennsylvania's 560 wage tax bureaus into only 69 and permits employers to withhold and remit earned income taxes, should help alleviate that problem.)

In other cases, Brewster said, landlords of multiple-family dwellings are paying for only one trash pickup when they should be paying for each family.

"The economy is only getting worse, and that really hurt us in 2008," because many residents fell behind on tax, trash and sewage payments, he said.

City Administrator Dennis Pittman said that of 11 positions eliminated, two were accomplished through early retirements. The remaining employees were laid off. Four have found other employment, he said.