Follow the money
Sheriffs are expensive ... Sales tax showdown ... And the king of local newsletters is a dog.
The Pima County Board of Supervisors will get some good news today on the financial front: Revenues are up by $6 million in the first six months of the fiscal year.1
However, it appears the county already spent most of that windfall.
The Pima County Sheriff’s Department will be $4.7 million in the red by July when the fiscal year ends, mostly due to millions of dollars in overtime pay for correction officers at the Pima County Jail, County Administrator Jan Lesher estimated.
Lesher also doesn’t expect Sheriff Chris Nanos to make the cuts in his budget that the board required him to make last summer.
“The Sheriff's department was required to take a 2% cut in their budget, $3,472,718. It appears unlikely that they will be able to achieve this reduction,” Lesher wrote.
This shouldn’t be a surprise, the Sheriff’s Department budget is often in the red. Last year, supervisors approved a $11 million year-over-year increase for the department.
The supervisors will also be asked to approve changes in the county’s compensation plan, allowing departments to offer a higher base pay to attract better applicants.
Meanwhile, Tucson’s local state sales tax revenues are beating expectations halfway through the fiscal year. These trends essentially add up to several million extra dollars, which is just a drop in the bucket in terms of the city’s $2.3 billion adopted budget.
Spoiler alert: Even if the city does have more in its coffers at the end of the year, it looks like it will spend a lot more on healthcare costs for city employees in the next fiscal year.There are some big unknowns out there as well:
Voters will decide Prop 414 in March and it has millions in additional funding for law enforcement and housing. If voters reject the half-cent sales tax increase, estimated to increase revenue by $80 million a year, it is bound to have budget implications.
Funding for free buses will run out in 2026 unless a regional solution can be found. The program costs the city roughly $10 million a year.
And the City of Tucson’s flirtation with forming its own publicly owned (and run) power utility might finally have a price tag associated with it.
The city has been looking into the feasibility of taking over for Tucson Electric Power when the city’s contract with TEP expires next year. Officials say they’re trying to lessen the impact of climate change and lower costs for customers.
While the consultant hired by the city, GDS Associates, doesn’t spell out the projected cost to the city in their latest report, our back-of-the-envelope math puts it at about $1 billion, give or take a few hundred million.
We don’t need anything like $1 billion to keep the Agenda going strong…but if you have a spare $100 million lying around, we wouldn’t say no to it.
On paper, the consultant says the book value of Tucson Electric Power’s total distribution system is $1.5 billion - although the consultant estimates that the city might only have to buy a portion of that infrastructure worth $820 million.
The city would also have to acquire other assets like a fleet of specialized vehicles and equipment not associated with the main plant – which is estimated to be worth another $575 million.
While the Council will continue to discuss the possibilities – a final report isn’t expected to be public for several months – this isn’t the only option for the city getting in the game.
The Council could move to reduce costs by going with “a choice aggregation program” – producing electric power in a new plant while TEP would be responsible for providing delivery and transmission services.
Roughly one in four of the homeless encampments the City of Tucson surveyed in the last two months of 2024 were labeled as needing “immediate removal.”
It’s unclear from the city’s monthly report on homelessness exactly how many encampments were cleared out between Halloween and Christmas or how many people were impacted or were placed on a list for removal.
The city has been looking at ways to crack down on homelessness in the wake of the Grants Pass case in June, which overturned city-level bans on “public camping,” AKA homelessness. They came close to making it illegal to sleep in washes last September, and even before the Grants Pass decision they put large rocks alongside underpasses where unsheltered people often sleep.
City officials note they are trying to balance the safety and well-being of homeless individuals along with the needs of the surrounding community, and the environment.
“We must continue to separate the behavior from the housing status and address issues such as open-air drug use, trespassing on private property, and conditions that can create a public safety hazard,” wrote Assistant City Manager Elizabeth Morales.
Arguments heating up: Lines are being drawn in the local business community as Tucson voters consider whether to approve a new sales tax in March. Pat DeConcini, an executive at the commercial real estate firm 4-D Properties, is taking the lead on the Yes on Prop 414 campaign, the Tucson Sentinel’s Jim Nintzel reports. Meanwhile, the Tucson Metro Chamber says Prop 414 would increase everyday costs for families and businesses.
“I've looked at the needs, I've looked at how this is funded, and in my opinion, this is really good for business,” DeConcini said. “I don't see how this could ever be seen as something that's not good for businesses here in Tucson. It will only help businesses.”
Trouble in paradise: Sparks are flying over the University of Arizona’s Global Campus, a controversial online school the UA bought five years ago for $1. The UA is trying to boost retention rates for first-year students, many of whom are working adults who can’t take as many classes as younger students, the Arizona Daily Star’s Prerana Sannappanavar reports. At the same time, UA Prof. Nolan Cabrera warned students not to enroll in the Global Campus, saying it was a “substandard education.” The Global Campus’ faculty council fired back, saying Cabrera’s criticism had “no merit” and amounted to a “collection of baseless assumptions.”
Gloomy forecast: The parent company of KVOA is cutting weathercasters positions across the country, which could mean bad news for Tucson weather watchers, the Sentinel’s Dylan Smith reports. No word yet on whether KVOA will lose anybody. Allen Media, which owns KVOA, the Weather Channel, and dozens of local TV news stations, is planning to run local weather operations out of the Weather Channel’s HQ in Atlanta.
Different tacks: While the City of Tucson looks at getting more into the utility game, the Willcox City Council is trying to get out of it, the Herald/Review’s Hector Acuna reports. They’re looking to sell the city-owned natural gas utility and last week they got an update on how “gas hedging” can help them deal with spikes in natural gas prices in the meantime.
It is not quite a quorum, but at least two Tucson City Council members want you to adopt this dog.
On Friday, this handsome pooch named Trey made it into the newsletters for both Councilmembers Paul Cunningham and Kevin Dahl.
While promoting the pet of the week at the Pima Animal Care Center isn’t that unusual in city newsletters - we are pretty sure this doesn’t constitute a quorum.
We checked - the pup wasn’t in at least one other Council newsletter that went out on Friday before the three-day weekend.
For what it is worth, Trey is free to adopt. We are told (twice) that he is neutered, up-to-date on vaccines, and microchipped. Contact PACC (520) 724-5900 if you want to bring him home.
Although that $6 million includes a one-time refund of $3.3 million for the Arizona Long Term Care System.
We should start asking Juan Ciscomani in a public way to respond to the actions by the FFOTUS. I sent him an email this morning reminding him his oath to the constitution required him to protect it against all enemies, foreign and domestic. Maybe a weekly recap of his silence or public statements will benefit the Tucson readers.