What a difference 12 days makes.
When the city posted its last budget proposal almost two weeks ago, the options to balance the budget were brutal.
One suggestion would have closed city-run swimming pools for part of the year.
Yesterday, Tucson City Manager Tim Thomure put out a new annual budget proposal that figures out how to continue free fares on city buses for another year, and avoids closing two firehouses and swimming pools while still tackling a projected $18 million deficit.
On Tuesday, the Tucson City Council will begin dissecting the 36-page document document, which dives much deeper into how Tucson can dig its way out of an unavoidable loss in revenues at a time when inflation is hitting every aspect of city services and the cost of deferred maintenance is beginning to take its toll.
From one wonk to another — please know that the budget includes a few gimmicks, makes some assumptions that outside groups will go along with the plan and still includes cuts to city services.
In the next year, we expect Thomure will have to guide the council to take some risky short cuts — think the Stairs of Cirith Ungol 1 — to help them quickly find their way back to a balanced budget if some of his more hopeful proposals fall through.
Locals are spending less at stores and restaurants. The city projects sales tax revenues will drop by $11 million from 2024.
The bad news
Thomure was able to find wiggle room in the budget to avoid closing fire stations and ending free fares for buses — but there were trade-offs, including:
More fee increases: The proposed budget would raise $2.3 million by increasing fees for Parks and Recreation, Planning and Development Services, Environmental Services as well as a TCC Event Parking Fee increase.
The grass will be browner: The plan would save $500,000 a year from the Parks and Recreation budget by freezing — though they call it a “frost” — open positions, reducing maintenance and slowing down the repair schedule. On the bright side, the proposal wouldn’t mess with public pools with the long hot summer ahead. (The council recently discussed closing some of its pools, but no one liked the idea.)
Fire stations will remain open: The city wants to ask the University of Arizona to sign a new $3.5 million agreement to help keep the nearby Fire Station 3 open. Right now, the UA is paying $100,000 a year, roughly the cost of one firefighter. The city will also ask the state to cover the costs of Station 6 near the Arizona State Prison Complex.
Neither agency has the ability to handle a structure fire, and both completely rely on Tucson Fire Department for emergency services (as does South Tucson). However, it isn’t clear whether either the UA or the state will agree to the new seven-figure contracts.
Lots of hiring freezes: Thomure has signed off on not hiring in the Business Services Department, City Attorney, City Clerk, City Court, Housing and Community Development, IT, general services, and even in the City Manager’s Office. He also expects the fire department to cut back $2 million in overtime next year and cut another $1 million from the police department overtime budget.
There are no hiring freezes at either the police or fire departments. In fact, the city has accepted a multi-year grant to hire 50 more police officers.
Here is a reminder that the city doesn’t have an unrestricted $2.46 billion annual budget, nearly $131 million goes to banks on the loans it is still paying off.
Here are some of the things dragging on the city’s budget:
Mistakes: An audit by the Arizona Department of Revenue found that the city had erroneously charged $2.9 million in taxes to five hotels that were located outside of city limits.
Declining revenues: Local sales tax collections peaked in FY24 but have trended downward since. FY27 projections show a continued decline. And state-shared income tax declined in FY25 and FY26 due to the adoption of a 2.5% flat income tax — which Mayor Regina Romero calls the “Ducey tax” — at the state level.
And here are some potential hits looming ahead of us that are hard to quantify:
Local economic activity has been impacted by slowing job creation, tourism and construction. External “shocks,” such as the war with Iran, have increased gas prices and stock market volatility, leading to a drop in consumer confidence.
The city is bracing for potential further reductions in FY28 due to state tax code changes and a legislative proposal (HCR2016) that would ask voters to freeze new local revenue from fees or taxes through 2030.
Tucson officials are also unsure how much the “One Big, Beautiful, Bill” (OBBB) signed by Presidential Donald Trump will hurt the city’s revenue streams. FY27 is unclear, but fully conforming with the OBBB is estimated to further reduce city revenues by over $7 million in FY28.
There is plenty of time to lobby the Council before the new cuts are locked into place.
Not all of the proposals are going to be popular, and you can weigh in on Tuesday at City Hall at 5:30 p.m. during call to the public. Or you can reach out to your City Council member's office.
In the same boat as Tucson: After GOP state lawmakers asked Attorney General Kris Mayes to investigate whether Phoenix, along with the City of Tucson and Pima County, are violating state law by restricting federal immigration enforcement, Phoenix officials presented their case, arguing that as a charter city they can regulate city-owned property, including whether federal law enforcement like ICE can use it to stage immigration sweeps, the Arizona Mirror’s Jim Small reports.
Opening it up: State lawmakers may get rid of a limit on how many patients from each county can be admitted to the Arizona State Hospital, Stephanie Innes reports for the Republic. Right now, Maricopa County can’t have more than 55 patients at any one time in the 117-bed hospital, which is the highest-level psychiatric facility in the state. But SB1813 from Sierra Vista Republican Sen. David Gowan would base admittance to the hospital solely on clinical need. Critics of the bill say it could effectively put a limit on other counties’ ability to send patients to the hospital, while health experts say the bill makes more medical sense than an arbitrary limit.
Cutting the price of eggs: The South Tucson City Council is moving ahead with a plan to eliminate the city’s 1.5% grocery tax, Jacqueline Aguilar reports for KGUN. The city will take a $120,000 hit to its sales tax revenue, but council members say they’re trying to relieve financial burdens on city residents. Councilman Cesar Aguirre says the sales tax contributed to Food City leaving town and he’s hoping if the city gets rid of the tax, it might entice another grocery store to set up shop in South Tucson.
Cochise County kerfuffles: The battle over an aluminum recycling plant in Benson appeared to be over when a judge dismissed a lawsuit last month, but the legal fight isn’t quite done, the Herald Review reports. The plaintiffs plan to appeal, but they can’t do that until they get a finalized order from the court dismissing the lawsuit. While they wait, Aluminum Dynamics is rolling ahead with construction on the plant. Meanwhile, the long-running dispute over the Ramsey Canyon Inn may be headed toward a resolution, but it would have to satisfy the concerns not only of the inn owners, but also county officials who want the inn to comply with zoning ordinances and neighbors who are upset about noise from the inn.
There’s no better place to learn about political kerfuffles, hijinks, ballyhoo or even shenanigans than the Tucson Agenda. Show your support by upgrading to a paid subscription!
Not accepting reservations: U.S. Marines booked up the historic Gadsden Hotel in Douglas through October 1, although the reason why remains unclear, per Cochise Regional News. That uncertainty got the rumor mill going in Douglas, where residents don’t know if there’s a training exercise planned or the Marines are part of the “National Defense Areas” the Trump administration set up along the border with Mexico last year.
You gotta love local newspaper editors who get fed up with BS from elected officials.
They can unleash their readers’ pent-up frustration and remind everybody that politicians work for the people, not the other way around.
Take Dan Shearer, editor of the Green Valley News and author of more than a few hard-nosed editorials.
He just tore Republican U.S. Rep. Juan Ciscomani a new one for not showing up to answer questions from his constituents (an issue that Arizona Daily Star columnist Tim Steller also brought up this week and we regularly make fun of Ciscomani for).
Shearer didn’t hold back when he showed his contempt for Ciscomani’s attitude in an editorial this week.
“Ciscomani spent his two-week spring recess from Congress handing out awards, talking to hand-picked groups and snuggling with friendly media — the kind who consider ‘What do you like on your Sonoran hot dog?’ to be hard-hitting journalism,” Shearer writes.
“Juan loves those questions because it allows him to avoid the fact that America is on fire — an America he helped create through blind allegiance to a president who is unraveling before our eyes.”
What’s Ciscomani gonna do in response to Shearer’s scathing editorial? Send out a nasty press release or Tweet? (By all means!) Actually do a real interview with a local reporter? (We’re waiting!)
Don’t bet on it.
He’ll probably just stare wistfully out the window of his congressional office and silently wish he hadn’t hitched his wagon to a megalomaniac.
If you feel like getting something off your chest, pick up the phone and give us a holler, congressman!
1 Sorry for the wonky “Lord of the Rings” reference here, but if Thomure is going to keep using them in public…