Following a public hearing Tuesday night, Tucson’s Mayor and Tucson City Council voted 6 to 1 vote to adopt the proposed Fiscal Year 2016 $1.368 billion Recommended Budget that according to Tucson City Councilman Steve Kozachik, “shifts money around and does nothing for the hole we’re facing next year.”
“Next year we will see another court decision related to Public Safety pensions. It will likely cost us north of $15M. We will also assume the cost of 25 police officers who will no longer be covered by a grant. That’ll add about $1M to our General Fund obligation to public safety. Add to that new costs for City Court operations and our contract with SW Gas, and we start off next fiscal year about $20M in the hole. The Star didn’t bother to tell you any of that,” wrote Democrat Councilman Kozachik in his newsletter written the day after the vote, “but our incoming City Manager is well aware. We’ll see how he plans to address these realities when he arrives in July.”
The Council also voted to consolidate the upcoming City and Pima County ballots. As a result, because the County
only mails out ballots to people who have signed up for the Permanent Early Voter List (PEVL), approximately
80,000 people “won’t get a ballot in the mail without going to the County Recorder and specifically requesting it,” according to Kozachik.
It is the fact that the current City Council, minus Kozachik, is unwilling to “address these realities,” that has caused the incumbents to face challengers this year. On Wednesday, those challengers were vocal in their criticims of Tuesday’s Council vote, in a press release:
Republican Candidate Bill Hunt, Ward 1 said, “Balancing the budget with one time fixes doesn’t work anymore. We have to stop mortgaging the future.”
Council Candidate Kelly Lawton, Ward 2 said, “This budget has no cost containment. We are on a fast track to Bankruptcy. The future of Tucson is no longer a concern of this council.”
Margaret Burkholder, Ward 4 Republican Candidate described the problem many of her Middle School students can understand. “This council seems to have forgotten simple math. Maybe it does take a math teacher to explain it. Tucson Deserves Better.”