The Tucson City Council on Tuesday unanimously approved a $1.9 billion budget for fiscal year 2022.
The budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1 prioritizes employee compensation, pandemic recovery, neighborhood road improvements and community safety.
βIβm pleased that weβre considering this budget tonight. It has taken a lot of work to craft, a lot of minds put together and the entire team working hand-in-hand with each other,β Mayor Regina Romero said. βIβm very proud of the decisions that weβve made in this yearβs budget to refocus our energy and investment in the residents of the city of Tucson and the workers of our city.β
More than $33.5 million is included in the budget for employee raises, bringing wages below the standard market rate to those of nearby jurisdictions pay for similar positions.
City employees began seeing raises in their paychecks last week, City Manager Michael Ortega said. Approval of the budget comes with a one-time $2,000 payment to employees who have worked with the city for 28 years or more.
The budget also includes $816,000 to hire small-business navigators and initiate a program called βIgnite Tucson.β Small-business navigators will have conversations with local businesses to provide expertise on development, while βIgnite Tucsonβ will serve as a marketing program to promote businesses and potentially provide them funds for recovery efforts.
The city has $67 million from the American Rescue Plan budgeted in several areas, including housing and transportation. The council is still determining how those dollars will be spent.
The city has $14 million dedicated for local road repairs throughout the next fiscal year. Each ward and the mayorβs office was given $2 million to assign to projects with the roads in most need of repair undergoing construction first.
This yearβs budget also initiates Phase 2 of the cityβs community safety program with more than $5.1 million in funding. Ortega describes this as the implementation phase βa moralistic approach to community safety.β
Phase 1 of the program involved identifying the communityβs needs and determining how the city would implement the program.
The expenses include expanding the cityβs Housing First program, independent auditorβs office and community safety officers program.
The budgeted items for community safety include hiring 20 community service officers, who are non-sworn officers who respond to incidents such as non-injury traffic accidents and requests for community assistance, as well as 14 social workers and records analysts, and three independent police auditors who look into citizen complaint investigations of the Police Department.
Other items on the budget include:
$660,00 for public-records staffing for the Tucson Police Department.
$500,000 for a film incentive payment to Visit Tucson.
$424,000 in grants for housing support.
$335,000 to renovate the Clements Fountain.
$200,000 for public safety, health and wellness.
$488,000 for green stormwater expenses.
Plastic film and plastic bags should never go in curbside recycling. They can be recycled at most grocery stores instead. Video courtesy of Tucson Environmental Services.
