The Daily Agenda: Key moment for Tucson budget next week

The Tucson City Council will vote on $2.4 billion in spending … They balanced the budget, but deficits loom … Homeless camp dwellers put on notice.

One of the biggest moments of the budget season is coming up on Tuesday.

The Tucson City Council is going to vote on their tentative budget, after months of talking about fare-free transit, state-shared revenues, and a 3% pay raise for city employees, among many, many other spending issues.

The tentative budget for the coming year includes $2.4 billion in spending, which is $178 million more than the current budget.

The budget is balanced, but the city’s five-year forecast has some dark clouds on the horizon. They’re expecting to see budget deficits starting with $24 million in 2026 and then $17 million the following year.

One of the main reasons for those deficits is, like Pima County and Oro Valley, officials in Tucson are seeing fewer dollars coming from the state Legislature. Lawmakers are in the middle of dealing with a $1.3 billion budget deficit of their own, and Tucson officials expect state-shared income tax revenue to drop by about $28 million next year.

The city’s looming deficits made the council pump the brakes on the idea of giving city employees a 3% raise. They want to avoid giving employees a raise and then having to lay off several hundred people when the deficits hit, Mayor Regina Romero said at last week’s council meeting.

When the city council adopts the tentative budget next week, that will set a cap on how much money they can spend next year. They can fiddle around with how that money is spent, but they can’t add any more spending.

That’s one of the reasons officials tend to put a little cushion in tentative budgets. If a big federal grant comes through next year or sales tax revenue goes up more than expected, they want to be able to spend that money.

If you look at the Transportation and Mobility budget, you can see officials plan to use $20 million more in federal grants next year than they did this year, along with budgeting an additional $43 million on capital improvements and an additional $17 million in Prop 411 funds on street improvements.

The good-ish news for property owners is the city’s property tax rate is going to go down a little. But even though the rate is going down, the revenue from property taxes will actually go up, so the city has to hold a Truth in Taxation hearing.

One quirk of this budget is what to do about the sales tax election the council set up in February. Supposedly, there will be an election in July, but the council hasn’t explained what it’s all about. Time is running out to decide what they want to do and convince the public to approve it before early ballots go out July 3.

In the meantime, city staff included $40 million as a placeholder in the budget for whatever happens with the sales tax election.

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As business owners, we have to manage budgets, too. Who knew it was so complicated? So many numbers to sort through, you can’t avoid getting a headache.

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As for fare-tree transit, the council got some bad news at their meeting last week. It’s not looking good for the state lottery funds the council was hoping could offset the $13 million cost.

The state used to share those lottery funds with local governments, but stopped doing it after the financial crisis more than a decade ago. Maricopa County sued the state and got their share back a few years later, which gave the council some hope they could do the same.

But City Attorney Mike Rankin said the basis for that court decision no longer exists under the law, so those lottery funds are not an option, “absent a significant change by the Legislature.”

After the council votes on the tentative budget on Tuesday, they’re scheduled to adopt the final budget June 4 and also hold a public hearing.

You can watch Tuesday’s meeting on the city’s YouTube channel.

Encampment eviction: Residents of a portion of Tucson’s largest homeless encampment were given a 72-hour notice on Tuesday that the city will begin clearing the area, the Arizona Daily Star’s Charles Borla writes. The 100-Acre Wood is located near Davis-Monthan Air Force Base. The notice was given to people living in the northern portion of the encampment, on the north side of East Golf Links Road where it meets South Alvernon Way. The area is being cleared out so D-M can begin underground testing for PFAS chemicals.

Grijalva steps in: U.S. Rep. Raúl Grijalva is pushing the U.S. Forest Service to extend the public comment period for the controversial South32 Hermosa Mine project, the Tucson Sentinel’s Paul Ingram reports. The 30-day comment period opened last Friday, but Grijalva said the agency should extend it for at least another month and preferably 90 days. 

"The Hermosa project …is an especially large, complex, and controversial project that warrants robust public review and input," Grijalva said. "Local governments and community members have expressed serious concerns about the noticed 30-day timeline for public comment and have good cause for an extended scoping period."

Help wanted: Tucson police are asking for the public’s help in the investigation into University of Arizona student Erin Jones’ death at a party hosted by the football team last month, Arizona Public Media’s Hannah Cree reports. An unknown person opened fire at the April 28 party, killing Jones and injuring three others. Police say there’s no reason to believe Jones’ death was targeted, but they need more information about the party, which was attended by more than 200 people.

New leadership: The Tucson LGBTQ Chamber of Commerce has hired Andee Huxhold as its first full-time executive director, Tucson Weekly’s Laura Latzko writes. Huxhold moved to Tucson from Northern Indiana and said she’s playing catch up and trying to “quickly become attuned to the movers and shakers in Tucson.” The nonprofit LGBTQ Chamber of Commerce, also called the “Gaymber,” was founded in the early 1990s. Huxhold says she plans on growing programs, like the Gaymber’s monthly breakfasts, while also creating new events, like interactive lunches with speakers.

Mark your calendars: This is Tucson is hosting a monsoon-themed mini market on Saturday, June 15 with an all-local lineup of vendors, This is Tucson’s Gloria Knott reports. The market is sponsored by Tucson Water and will include on-site monsoon-themed flash tattoos and crafts. The event will feature around 30 vendors, including two food trucks, and will take place from 6 to 10 p.m. at the Coalition Space, 311 E. Seventh St.

Hot take: Attorneys for Louis Taylor claim in their most recent court filings that Pima County Attorney Laura Conover lied during a sworn deposition, KVOA’s Chorus Nylander reports. Taylor spent 42 years in prison in connection with the deadly 1970 Pioneer Hotel Fire before making a deal with the former county attorney and being released from prison in 2013. His federal lawsuit against Pima County and the City of Tucson is scheduled to go to trial in early July. The new filing claims that Conover lied during a deposition about a phone call she had with attorney Nick Acedo, who is representing the county in the lawsuit. Conover told KVOA she testified truthfully during her deposition and Acedo said he “absolutely did not accuse” Conover of lying under oath, adding that when his filing is made public, it will dispel the “outrageous allegation.”

$1.3 million: That’s how much the City of Tucson typically collects from parking meters in a year. They also take in about $750,000 for parking violations.