the city of phoenix doesnt have enough money to pay its bills but it is hiring more cops and instead cutting back on services like the library and trash collection. phoenix is already a police state and phil gordon is just turning it into a bigger police state by hiring more cops. write the government rulers at the city of phoenix and tell them you dont want no more stinking cops!! doug.lingner@phoenix.gov csr@valleymetro.org peggy.bilsten@phoenix.gov cdist1@phoenix.gov council.district.2@phoenix.gov peggy.bilsten@phoenix.gov council.district.4@phoenix.gov council.district.5@phoenix.gov greg.stanton@phoenix.gov michael.johnson@phoenix.gov phil.gordon@phoenix.gov Original Article Phoenix must cut $68.7 million 7% slice in budget needed as revenue shrinks Ginger D. Richardson The Arizona Republic Jan. 29, 2005 12:00 AM Phoenix officials will have to cut $68.7 million - or just over 7 percent - of their $930 million general fund budget by the start of the next fiscal year. The cuts could mean reductions in all kinds of services that residents use every day. Proposals include closing public swimming pools earlier to eliminating some after-school programs to delaying the opening of seven new fire stations. The news caps off a pretty bad week for Phoenix, the city that frequently bills itself as "The Best-Run City in the World." The city snagged the honor back in 1993; but you wouldn't know it from the past five days. First there was a contaminated city water scare, then a Southwest Gas pipeline leak that cut service to 11,000 homes and businesses. Now this. "I am just grateful we haven't been beset by a plague of locusts," Mayor Phil Gordon said Friday, after being briefed on the situation. "It's going to be a very tough challenge for us to balance the budget and provide essential city services. But we will do it." City officials say the cuts are necessary because projected revenues aren't growing as fast as skyrocketing costs. The budget woes were made public Friday in a report from City Manager Frank Fairbanks, who has asked all city departments for recommendations on how to cut their budgets by 5 percent. He has also implemented an immediate hiring freeze at City Hall. It won't affect police officers or firefighters. In fact, the city needs to hire hundreds of new public-safety personnel to keep up with growth and to offset the effects of an early-retirement program that begins in 2006. To decrease the impact of the fiscal 2005-06 crunch, officials are hoping to implement roughly half the cuts, or $35 million, early, by May 23. The rest would come July 1, when the new fiscal year officially begins. Specifics by March 1 Program reductions and personnel cuts will be decided by March 1; they could result in layoffs, depending on which programs are recommended for elimination and whether enough employees volunteer for early retirements. In tight budget times, the City Council traditionally has avoided cutting the budgets of the police and fire departments - two of the city's largest - preferring instead to make more draconian reductions in other areas. Gordon said he hopes to exempt the two departments from cuts this time, as well. "I will not support the reduction of police and fire personnel," Gordon said. "My first priority to this city is public safety." Crunching numbers Fairbanks and Budget Director Cecile Pettle have been crunching numbers repeatedly over the past six months, and said they weren't surprised that the city was facing this kind of deficit because the situation had "been continually worsening." But the drastic nature of the news caught some City Council members off guard, including Gordon, who said he "didn't know" how deep the cuts would be. Councilman Claude Mattox said these reductions will be felt by residents, particularly because the city has already sliced $105 million from its general fund during the past three years. "When we started this process, we were told to do different levels of cuts." Mattox said. "The first set was easy, the second a little more difficult, and now the third is going into the bones and muscle." To put it in perspective, Phoenix's projected deficit for next year almost equals the town of Gilbert's entire general fund. The financial woes are being caused by a host of factors, including health, benefit and compensation packages for employees, the need to pour more money in the city's pension fund - which has lost money as the economy has struggled - and new expenses, like the hiring of police and fire officers. One of the biggest problems has its roots in the budget cuts of previous years. Usually leftovers Usually, each city department has money left over at the end of any given year that it can then roll over and use to fund programs in the next year. But when officials began trimming budgets three or four years ago, those savings were eaten up. The result: About $32 million that the city doesn't have to play with next year. "This is the first time we've seen that happen in a major way," Fairbanks said. City officials say this shortfall will not force them to raise taxes. So far, plans to fix the deficit have focused solely on cutting personnel through attrition and voluntary layoffs and reducing services. Departments cringing Meanwhile, departments are hoping the slicing of their operations doesn't go too deep. For example, a 5 percent budget reduction in fire department operations would cause response times, which are already at an all-time high, to get lengthier, said Assistant Phoenix Fire Chief Bob Khan. "We were pretty much bare-bones without any more reductions," Khan said. "We would be getting into our ability to respond to emergencies." Phoenix officials will discuss the budget problems at a policy session at 2 p.m. Tuesday in the City Council chambers, 200 W. Jefferson St. They also plan to hold a series of budget hearings in early March so the public can weigh in on the proposed cuts. Staff writers Meghan Moravcik, Judi Villa and Chris Ramirez contributed to this report. Reach the reporter at ginger. richardson@arizonarepublic.com or at (602) 444-2474.