The city of Tempe is working to find ways to save itsselves from their own financial crisis, and among the proposed ideas is the elimination of 146 positions.
To find ways to balance the budget for the next four fiscal years, Tempe city manager Charlie Meyer submitted a budget-balancing proposal earlier this month.
The proposal will be discussed by the city council on Thursday at 3 p.m.
In the proposal are measures that could cause the city to severely curtail resources. A wide range of public programs including public
safety and education could be affected.
According to the proposal, if revenue continues to lag as anticipated, Tempe will be looking at a general fund deficit of more than $34.5 million dollars for fiscal years 2009 and 2010 alone. The proposal reads, “Without intervention, this situation worsens in subsequent fiscal years.”
Nikki Ripley, a spokeswoman for Tempe, said 83 of the 146 full-time positions slated for elimination are currently filled. The proposal states that if all 146 positions were eliminated, it would save the city almost $12 million.
“Every attempt would be made to place [the employees that hold those jobs] in other positions around the city. Layoffs are still a last resort for us,” Ripley said.
According to the proposal, the elimination of those positions would mean a 9 percent reduction of Tempe’s full-time staff.
Tempe City Manager Charlie Meyer said to deal with the deficit for this fiscal year; Tempe implemented a hiring freeze starting last summer. The city also negotiated with city employees who elected to waive their pay raises in January.
“It didn’t make any sense to be taking raises in the context of eliminating positions. They took a bigger view of our circumstances and decided that it was in their best interest,” Meyer said.
Other money-saving measures could include an increase in the bed tax, which is a tax applied to hotel and motel rooms. The proposed increase is a raise from 3 percent to 4 percent. Meyer said that based on the current collection rate, the added 1 percent could increase revenue by about $1.2 million.
Another potential measure has to do with city employees close to retirement.
“There’s a proposal in there for some retirement incentive. The sooner we get started on that the better,” Meyer said.
The proposal, which Meyer submitted to the Council, narrows the scope of these incentives to employees who hold positions that are slated for elimination.
“The concept would be that a retirement incentive would be offered before July 2009, and, if taken, would create a vacancy sooner than if the position was vacated through position reductions,” according to the proposal.
There are 22 eligible employees. If they all participate, which according to the proposal is unlikely, the buyouts would cost Tempe $188,000.
Sgt. Scott Smith of the Tempe Police Department said each city department was asked to identify 6 percent of its budget that could be eliminated.
“We’ve identified 34 positions within the police department that have been offered [for elimination],” Smith said.
The mounted unit, which is the division of officers who patrol on horseback, has also been offered for elimination, which, Smith said, would impact crowd control and the department’s visibility at public events.
Smith stressed the fact that the department does not want to impact first responses to emergencies.
“You may see an increase in response times [to non-emergencies]; you may see an increase in the lack of availability of a police officer to spend the time needed to engage in proactive patrol,” he said.
Reach the reporter at benjamin.weitzenkorn@asu.edu.
