The Mayor and Tucson City Council will hold a public hearing tomorrow night on the Fiscal Year 2016/17 Recommended Budget submitted last month by City Manager Michael Ortega. The hearing will take place during the Regular Meeting at 5:30 p.m. at 255 W. Alameda St.
The $1.37 billion plan includes a mix of spending cuts and revenue increases. The City Council is scheduled to tentatively adopt the budget on May 17. Another meeting and public hearing will be held June 7, and final budget adoption will take place after that hearing.
According to Councilman Steve Kozachik this year’s budget proposes some changes to the transit system including cuts to services from Sun Tran, Sun Van, and the streetcar. Kozachik notes in his newsletter, “A few things will be on the table:
a) For Sun Van, staff has proposed changes to our “optional ADA service” – that is, service that we provide above and beyond what’s federally mandated. The price of those trips would increase by $2 per ride in FY’17 and by $4 per ride in FY’18. Currently, the cost of providing those rides is just north of $25 per way.
The projected savings to the general fund for these changes are $258K in FY’17 and $500K in FY’18.
b) For Sun Tran, staff proposed increasing the base and economy fares by a dime in FY’17 and by 15 cents in FY’18. The projected revenue to the general fund for these changes would be $433K in FY’17 and $1.5M in FY’18.”
Kozachik also listed a “few highlights” for today’s public hearing. He wrote: