Councilwoman Peggy Neely's
Tatum Sun Times Column

August 2005

Budget Balancing – Maximizing Phoenix’s Resources

Since the kids will be going back to school soon, you probably already have found their pocket calculators or picked up a new one.

I thought we’d pull it out for a quick exercise on the huge numbers that go into balancing the city of Phoenix’s budget. The law requires us to end up balanced or in the black, and we take that fiscal responsibility seriously, even winning national awards for our budget planning.

Now take that calculator and type in a three and then nine zeros. That is $3 billion – about the same as the city’s total budget for 2005-2006. About two-thirds of that comes from grant funds and revenue-generating city departments, like Aviation and Water. Subtract that out from the total budget and you get what’s called the general fund – that’s the part of the budget you hear the most about. This year, the general fund is approximately $973 million – a few zeros less than the total budget, but still a very large sum.

Public safety (fire and police) and criminal justice account for 62 percent of the general fund budget. This is an area that my City Council colleagues and I have consistently supported throughout the budget process. Community development, environmental services and transportation are other big general fund components.

Obviously, running the country’s fifth-largest city and satisfying the varied needs of more than 1.4 million residents costs a lot of money. But just like in the business world, we understand the need to do more with less.

So, in the past four years, we have cut $117 million from our general fund. Look back at your calculator and you’ll see that’s more than 11 percent. We have been able to accomplish this because of great planning from our top city leaders, who are asked each year to find areas to cut, and the hard work of our city employees. They take on new tasks, do their work sometimes with less help, and continue to provide wonderful service to the community.

Your Police and Fire departments are protecting you and your neighborhood. Through much calculator-crunching this year, we not only avoided cuts to fire and police, but also were able to expand those critical budgets, even while cutting the city budget as a whole.

The biggest boost is with public safety personnel, where the budget funds 199 new positions. The city’s Police and Fire chiefs say that kind of a commitment helps keep all of us safe.

“The main goal is to provide service to the community and to continue to keep a handle on crime,” said Police Chief Jack Harris. “We can’t accomplish those critical goals without resources.”

“The budget enhancements in the coming year are a positive for our department,” said Fire Chief Alan Brunacini. “Those new resources go directly to customer service and represent our ability to help people who are having a bad day.”

Having enough money in their budgets helps police, fire and other city departments meet the needs of our rapidly-growing community. Residents are a big part of the process, with dozens of public meetings across the city each year.

Anyway you add it up, we are committed to Phoenix’s future and use the budget process as one tool to keep our city thriving, while spending within our means.

Phoenix City Councilwoman Peggy Neely represents District 2, which includes most of northeast Phoenix. She can be reached at 602-262-7445 or council.district.2@phoenix.gov.