As RAD Pass goes year-round, library cardholders gain free or discounted access to 29 organizations

Jeremy Reynolds / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

An Allegheny County Library card is about to carry a lot more perks than the ability to check out books.

Allegheny Regional Asset District — a government entity called RAD for short — announced Wednesday morning at an event at the Heinz History Center that cardholders will now be able to book visits for free or at heavily discounted rates to museums and cultural organizations, including the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, area museums and more.

It’s free to sign up for a library card in Allegheny County. Cardholders can now visit radpass.org to reserve tickets or coupons. Details about specific organizations — 29 in all, ranging from City Theatre Company and the Pittsburgh Glass Center to the National Aviary and the Hunt Armory — and dates are available on that site.

The announcement featured artists from Pittsburgh Opera and remarks from Allegheny County Executive Sara Innamorato, who noted that “families will no longer have to wait for a special free day,” thanks to the pass.

“We don’t talk about the arts enough as a job creator and economic driver,” she added.

RAD is essentially a public funding organization. In the 1990s, Pennsylvania passed legislation that allowed Allegheny County to add a 1% sales tax increase. (The state sales tax is 6%. The RAD tax brings the sales tax to 7% in Allegheny County.)

The projected total revenue due to that increased tax for 2025 is about $260 million, with half of the money directed to the county to provide property tax relief and support local services.

RAD uses the other half of the funding, about $130 million a year, to support “regional assets.” These assets include the stadiums Acrisure Stadium and PNC Park, the county libraries, public transit, public parks, the zoo and numerous cultural organizations, with the lion’s share, or about two-thirds, going to libraries, parks and trails.

For years now, RAD has asked organizations to provide a day of free programming or admission, to thank taxpayers for their contributions. Previously, these have been known as “RAD Days” and have taken place in September or October.

RAD in recent years had experimented with ways to expand the program, including the “3 for Free” initiative, which saw more than 165,000 people attend the Andy Warhol Museum, Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh and Heinz History Center.

Now, RAD is expanding RAD Days year-round, by subsidizing ticket and admission costs and asking organizations to provide a number of free tickets to select performances and events. If enough residents sign up to use RAD passes, then RAD will subsidize the cost of those tickets. The exact number varies by organization.

Since its founding in 1993, RAD’s sales tax has generated roughly $5 billion, split evenly between the county and RAD’s “regional assets.”

Funding decisions about what constitutes a “regional asset” are made publicly through an application and hearing process, which is currently ongoing. Final decisions are made by the seven-member RAD board, which includes two members appointed by the Pittsburgh mayor, four members appointed by the Allegheny County executive, and one member elected by the other six.

“We’re here to thank the taxpayers of Allegheny County,” said Dusty Kirk, RAD’s current board chair, at the Wednesday event.

Jeremy Reynolds: [email protected]. His work at the Post-Gazette is supported in part by a grant from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Getty Foundation and Rubin Institute.