Tucson City Manager Michael Ortega, pictured on his first month in the job, July 2015.
Tucson City Manager Michael Ortega said Tuesday that city department heads have found more than enough savings to erase a projected $25.6 million budget deficit.
Ortega told the City Council that the cuts found would allow the council to make choices about what gets cut and what stays.
"If you added all of these, we would more than solve this year's shortfall," Ortega said. "So the idea was not to just give you the exact number that would add up to the shortfall, but to actually exceed that and then provide you with the options of picking and choosing if you will, kind of a smorgasbord.”
Regina Romero, Democratic Tucson City Council member.
But during the council’s afternoon study session, it became clear that many of the proposed cuts affected programs supported by council members. For example, Councilwoman Regina Romero objected to proposed cuts in the Parks and Recreation Department’s “KidCo” recreation program.
“To save $300,000? You impact families that way?" Romero said. "I would much rather see the deputy director position at Parks and Recreation eliminated, much rather, and you could save easily $180,000 with that.”
She said the proposed cuts would affect after-school and summer programs for 900 children around the city, many in low income families with few alternatives.
The proposed reductions include reorganization of the Police Department and reductions in the Fire Department.
Ortega said every city department made proposals.
The council will take the report under consideration as it works its way through the city budget proposal this spring.
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