phoenix is over budget $67 million and they want to HIRE MORE COPS and fire library workers and other people who do real work. Original Article Bottom-line blues Something has to give in Phoenix city budget, but what? Feb. 21, 2005 12:00 AM If there's a real problem in Phoenix, it's not the water, but the budget. The city is in the midst of its second year of economic recovery. General Fund revenues are growing smartly, 8 percent over past year. Yet Phoenix faces a budget shortfall of $68.7 million for the next fiscal year. It's a frustrating situation caused, in part, by health, benefit and compensation packages for employees and the hiring of police officers and firefighters. advertisement A series of public hearings is scheduled for early March in each of the eight council districts on a proposal to cut 7 percent from the $930 million General Fund budget. City Manager Frank Fairbanks and Budget Director Ceil Pettle have been poring over the budget and crunching numbers for months. At the upcoming public meetings, they must clearly explain the short- and long-term issues confronting Phoenix city finances and service. Most residents can sympathize with the needs of a growing city and the challenges of replacing soon-to-be-retiring police officers and firefighters in stages so that experienced public safety personnel serve the city. Residents understand how homeland security alerts create emergency expenditures. Revenues are growing. But not fast enough to keep up with needs. Raising taxes has been ruled out; the situation is hardly that desperate. It would be easy if elected officials could solve their budget woes by just eliminating the line item slugged "government waste." Alas, no such expenditure appears in the fiscal 2006 budget document. Among the questions the city must address in weighing potential cuts: Should the opening of 16 parks and three senior citizen centers be pushed back? Is paving alleys to reduce dust pollution a luxury? Should the opening of seven fire stations be delayed? Should all libraries be closed on Fridays? Should the City Council continue to exclude police and fire from any budgetary scrutiny? Mayor Phil Gordon has pledged to make Phoenix "the safest city in America." And in the most recent city budget exercises, council members have held public safety expenditures, fully 60 percent of the city's General Fund budget, immune to cuts. That may not be possible this time around, given the scores of other city departments that have endured cutbacks in previous years. There are enough questions and complexities to warrant a full public review, especially given the current council's ambitions for west-side redevelopment, zoning enforcement and continued high levels of public services. Something's got to give. What will it be? What should it be? While the city wrestles with those questions, officials are wisely seeking to make some cuts in the last few months of this fiscal year to help ease the pain of balancing the next budget.