Our friends and neighbors

Shutdown hits Tucson hard … A triplex for city council ... And take the check, Juan!

This federal shutdown feels different.

It’s not just the vibes — thousands of Tucson families are furloughed and won’t see a paycheck until Congress passes a budget.

This time, President Donald Trump and his budget chief are openly talking about mass layoffs — as many as 750,000 federal jobs on the chopping block. That’s a new line being crossed. And it isn’t clear how many of those jobs could disappear here in Southern Arizona.

Our region is home to two massive military bases, Davis-Monthan Air Force Base and Fort Huachuca, with more than 16,000 active-duty personnel. Civilian numbers are harder to pin down, but federal stats show about 12,000 civilian employees here as of August. The single biggest federal employer in Tucson is the Department of Veterans Affairs, according to Pew.

We’re not economists, but tens of thousands of families are now making hard choices while Arizona’s congressional delegation mostly squabbles and points fingers.¹

Shutdowns aren’t new — the longest was 35 days in December 2018 / January 2019 — but this one comes with a nastier edge.

Here’s a taste:

• Trump told reporters that ”vast numbers” of federal workers could be laid off.

• OMB Director Russell Vought told Republicans that layoffs could start within days.

• Troops won’t get paid on time after the House failed to pass the ”Pay Our Troops Act of 2026.”

• National Parks are open, but with skeleton crews.

This goes well beyond the “routine furloughs” of past shutdowns. Some federal agencies are even posting partisan blame on their official websites. The Department of Housing and Urban Development’s homepage has a messaging saying “The Radical Left in Congress” is responsible for the shutdown.

Locally, some furloughed employees told us they’ve been told to check their email once a day to see if they’ve been fired. If that sounds familiar, remember the DOGE request asking federal workers to send in five things they did each week.

Last time there was a federal shutdown, Tucsonans rallied to help — organizing food drives and support groups to get families through five weeks without pay. At least there’s one certainty: Thanks to the Government Employee Fair Treatment Act of 2019, workers will eventually get back pay.

So what are Arizona’s electeds doing?

Mostly, fighting.

Tucson Congressman Juan Ciscomani announced he won’t take his paycheck — about $3,300 a week — during the shutdown.

Then he went on Twitter to criticize Democratic Sens. Ruben Gallego and Mark Kelly for not backing the bill — and again for not taking the same no-pay pledge.

Notably, he didn’t call out any other members of Congress. Just the two Arizona Democrats in the Senate.

They both fired back, blasting Republican leadership for creating this mess.

It’s too early to measure how badly the shutdown will hit Tucson’s economy. But as thousands of families here tighten their belts, the ripple effect will spread quickly to stores, restaurants and small businesses.

---

If you’re a federal employee, tell us your story. Drop a comment or reach out to Joe.

Elections have consequences: If you want to understand the stakes of the upcoming elections for three seats on the Tucson City Council, look no further than how they would apply a new state law to the city’s zoning rules. When the law takes effect in January, cities will have to allow more “middle housing” like duplexes and triplexes near downtown areas. But there’s some wiggle room in how it’s applied. The council candidates’ opinions range from applying the rules citywide to testing them out in a small area and seeing how it goes, the Tucson Sentinel’s Jim Nintzel reports.

Data error: The Pima County Treasurer’s Office used faulty data and accidentally overpaid some jurisdictions by $1.6 million from 2019 to 2021. The Treasurer’s Office is planning to fix the problem by adjusting how much investment income it distributes over the next eight months, according to a news release from the Treasurer’s Office. They don’t anticipate any effect on taxpayers.

Farewell, and hello: The Food City on South Sixth Avenue is going to close on Friday after nearly 25 years in business. It’s the only large grocery store in South Tucson, which spurred local elected officials to try to find ways to keep it open, but they couldn’t make it work. Over in midtown, a group of investors, including former Wildcat Steve Kerr, is going to buy the 95-year-old Arizona Inn, which has been owned by the same family since the Great Depression, the Arizona Daily Star’s Gabriela Rico reports.

“Our family is grateful that such a strong, knowledgeable, and motivated group has come together to carry on and revitalize the traditions of warmth and hospitality at the Arizona Inn,” owners Patty Doar and Will Conroy said in a statement Tuesday. “We’re especially heartened by the group’s longtime Tucson ties and sincere affection for the hotel.”

We’re about 2% as old as the Arizona Inn. But if Tucsonans keep stepping up for local news, we’ll happily keep publishing until 2118.

Coffee to go: Starbucks is closing seven stores in Tucson, along with about 500 others across the country. Local Starbucks employees are pushing to expand a union and they’re considering going on strike to protest the store closures and the CEO’s salary, which is more than 6,600 times higher than what regular employees earn, the Sentinel’s Paul Ingram reports. On the other hand, the closures of stores in Tucson, which went up in a flurry over the past few years, could open development possibilities for those properties, particularly the one on the corner of Campbell and Grant, Star columnist Tim Steller writes.

The fix is easier than you think: The United States and Mexico launched “Mission Firewall” last week to attempt to slow the flow of guns from the United States by using a digital tracking system and ballistic imaging on guns found at Mexican crime scenes, Washington Post columnist León Krauze writes. Which is good, but still ignores the “glaring hypocrisy” of the U.S. refusing to renew the ban on the sale and possession of assault weapons.

Tucson Congressman Juan Ciscomani says he’s giving up his paycheck until the shutdown is over.²

That’s about $3,300 a week he’s walking away from — not chump change.

According to his financial disclosure statements, Ciscomani’s main source of income is… his congressional salary. The rest is a mix of his wife’s salary, some stock holdings and his Arizona and congressional pension, which we’re pretty certain he can’t tap into yet.

The forms also show that the Ciscoman family is still cutting a check every month for their mortgage, just like the rest of us.

We like that in a politician.

But be careful — the bills don’t stop showing up just because Congress does!

1. We’re giving a pass to Adelita Grijalva here — she’s been elected, but Speaker Mike Johnson still hasn’t sworn her in.

2. Foregoing a paycheck isn’t totally uncommon during a shutdown. Former U.S. Sen. Martha McSally made the same promise back during the 2018/2019 shutdown.