No Extra Money In Phoenix Budget For Humane Society, Park Rangers

By Will Stone
Published: Wednesday, May 6, 2015 - 9:57am
Updated: Wednesday, May 6, 2015 - 1:22pm
Audio icon Download mp3 (990.81 KB)
Alexandra Olgin/KJZZ
Phoenix City Hall

Residents of Phoenix are not getting all they wanted in this year’s city budget. The council held a meeting Tuesday to look at what could and could not be included.

Phoenix City Council members came back from their listening tour with a wish list from constituents for the upcoming fiscal year. Examples include:

- Expand library hours to every day: $2.4 million.

- Restore park ranger staffing to pre-recession levels: $2.4 million.

- Fund the Humane Society’s care of rescued animals: $400,000.

None of this will be feasible this year. The city has a balanced budget for fiscal year 2015-2016 and only $300,000 dollars in extra cash. The city plans to place that in reserves.

The council hopes to fund some of the services requested by residents in the future. At this point, the chances of that are unclear, given a looming deficit of $40 million to $60 million for the next fiscal year.

That shortfall is being driven by the rising cost of public employee pensions and more cost shifting from the state to the local level.

Still, this year’s budget does add police officers and firefighters, expand light rail and improve some recreation services.