City weighs service cuts to close $50M budget gap
by Carli Brosseau on Oct. 22, 2008, under Local, SpecialNo more fat; this time it’s muscle, Hein says
Tucson City Manager Mike Hein told the City Council on Tuesday that the fat in the budget is gone: Now it’s time to cut the muscle.
Then they began to hear the screams.
Though acknowledging the city’s tough financial outlook and the convulsive national economy, social services providers and swimmers who use the Archer Center pool – a year-round pool slated to close for the winter to save the city money – asked the council to revise its funding choices.
City officials are looking for more than $50 million in cuts to balance the budget, which allocates a total of about $1.2 billion.
More than half of that shortfall is the result of lower-than-expected sales tax revenue, a memo from Interim Finance Director Frank Abeyta and Deputy City Manager Mike Letcher shows.
The rest is because of a failure to account for higher gas prices; higher pension, insurance, prison and payroll costs; and a transfer of funds to the state, records show.
Officials have found ways to compensate for most of the gap – including taking $4.6 million out of reserves, eliminating 165 positions and reducing contributions to social services agencies by about 10 percent. But they are looking for about $13 million more.
That will mean cuts in service, to be decided on a “trial and error basis,” Hein said.
The Parks & Recreation Department was asked to cut more than $400,000 from its aquatics program, which will likely mean the wintertime closing of six of the city’s nine year-round pools. The Edith Ball Adaptive Recreation Center Pool, 3455 E. Zoo Court in Reid Park; Sunnyside High School Pool, 1700 E. Bilby Road; and Catalina Pool, 2004 N. Dodge Blvd., are slated to remain open year-round.
Also Tuesday, the council approved the renegotiation of contracts with social services agencies to stipulate the drop in funding. The vote passed 6-0, with Councilman Steve Leal absent.
A consent agenda item revised at the request of Councilwoman Karin Uhlich also passed 6-0, requiring that the council approve the specific funding cuts suggested by city officials.
