The Tucson City Council this week approved a nearly $1.4 billion budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1.
The budget relies on the assumption that the economy will continue to improve and therefore sales taxes will bring in $7.7 million more next year than this year. It also requires a $20 per year property tax increase for the average Tucson homeowner.
One point of debate when the City Council discussed its budget was how much money to put into, or use from, its savings account, referred to as a "budget stabilization fund."
Martha Durkin, Tucson's interim city manager, said the city's financial policy recommends a savings equal to 10 percent– right now there's only about 5 percent stored.
“We need to work on that and we need to contribute to it, but these economic times don’t allow that as much as we would like,” Durkin said.
She said two new employers in Tucson, the AC Marriott and Banner Health's new association with the University of Arizona hospital will help bring in more revenue.
That's one way out of repeated budget stress, she said.
“We have reduced our expenditures to the amount that we can," she said. "We do need to increase revenue."
Durkin is the top administrative official with the city, but Michael Ortega will assume the position permanently in July.
The full 2016 Tucson budget calls for no new staff, no employee raises, and no layoffs.
Broadway widening
The Tucson City Council approved the alignment for a planned Broadway Boulevard widening between Euclid Avenue and Country Club Road.
The plan, which has been debated and changed in the past several years, now calls for a six-lane road with bicycle lanes and bus pullouts.
The original plan was for eight lanes, with dedicated transit lanes, but residents said the traffic demand doesn't require that much space.
“Right now there’s a big push to maximize the number of buildings that won’t be impacted," said Robert M. Lamb, the chief operations officer at GLHN Architects and Engineers, Inc on Broadway.
That has led to reduction in the width in some places to 98-feed wide. Lamb's business partner is on the citizen's committee created to help make the road plans.
Most of the road will < a href="http://www.tucsonaz.gov/broadway" target="_blank">be about 120-feet wide. Lamb said the 120-feet width was the consensus among residents, businesses and city transportation planners.
“We’re more concerned, actually all of us, we would rather see what’s right for Tucson looking 30 years ahead,” Lamb said.
Broadway Widening Map
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