In an effort to avoid playing favorites among the groups and agencies it funds, the Tucson City Council chose to adopt an across-the-board reduction of about 15.5 percent. Human Services Plan is the group which saw the largest monetary reduction for this year: dropping by $345,317 to $1,882,570.
Among the groups that are each getting the same percentage cut are Tucson Gem and Mineral Society, Access Tucson cable access programming and the Tucson Sister Cites Association. Not all groups are as fortunate to get an across the board cut. The Old Time Fiddle Contest saw the $1,800 it received last year yanked away entirely.
 Cyclists wait for the start of a segment of the El Tour de Tucson ride. Support from the city for the event was cut more than $4,000. |
All told, the city is cutting discretionary spending to these various agencies to $12.2 million down from $13.9 million.
“There’s people that will say that there’s $12 million, you can cut all of that, realize that part of that $12 million is was for the (Metropolitan Tucson) Convention and Visitors Bureau, TREO (Tucson Regional Economic Opportunities), C-Path and these are moneys we invest, programs that we helped start in order to have greater efficiency by looking at some things regionally,” Trasoff said.
The towns of Marana and Oro Valley have also reduced their allocations. Oro Valley is set to give out more than $277,000 this year as compared to $380,000 the previous fiscal year. Marana has allocated $100,000 for outside agencies, but has not determined the sources or levels of contribution. The previous year it gave out $109,500 and the year before that the discretionary funding level was at $160,000.
Sahuarita actually increased its funding for some community projects such as Green Valley Assistance Services and the Green Valley Community Food Bank, but cut funding to the Titan Missile Museum and the Santa Cruz Valley Heritage Alliance. The town is contributing $72,000 to community organizations this year.
The decreases also extend to areas of public safety. Victim Witness and 88-Crime are both set to receive a reduction in funding from Tucson.
“We understand that the city is in a fiscal crisis at the moment but were hoping that in future years the city will restore the cuts to Victim Witness and 88-Crime,” said Pima County Chief Deputy County Attorney Amelia Craig Cramer, adding she hopes Tucson will eventually contribute to these programs in the proportion they benefit from them.
Tucson’s funding for 88-Crime goes toward operating the after-hours tip line, which helped law enforcement officials make seven arrests and seize more than 600 pounds of marijuana in March, just as an example of one month. This year, the city plans to cut about $3,000 from the money it gives to the service. Cramer said having a centralized tip line for many jurisdictions, as 88-Crime is, tends to be more efficient than if each one operated its own service.
She said she won’t know the specific effect the cuts will have until the county will finalize its budget on July 28.
Perimeter Bicycling’s El Tour de Tucson event is getting hammered not only by the funding reduction, but also by the rising cost of police protection it needs for the annual November event.
“I’m in the same position as any business is in the community; how do you keep your business going when the people who have supported you for years are cutting back their funding?” said Richard DeBernardis, president of Perimeter Bicycling and founder of El Tour de Tucson.
But he says the annual El Tour also provides an economic incentive because it draws people from outside the region who spend their money here.
Some of the decreases involve groups with membership dues such as the economic development organization TREO. Last year, Marana’s council voted to discontinue the town’s $25,000 membership contribution to TREO.
“We’re in the middle of analyzing how to manage our operations and programs to really accommodate the cuts,” said TREO Vice President of Marketing and Communication Laura Shaw. One advantage the group has had, she said, was the recent addition of Benson and Sierra Vista as well as an increase in private sector investors. The company receives 74 percent of its funds from public sources and 26 percent from the private sector.
While the money it receives from the City of Tucson comprises less than one-half percent of its total budget the Tucson Museum of Art will feel the pinch of the almost $12,000 decrease in contributions. The museum is tentatively set to get $65,240 from the city during the current fiscal year, which started July 1.
That money, though, is to be used specifically for the upkeep and maintenance of five historical properties the city owns but the museum oversees. As some of them are adobe, they require extra attention.
“As anyone that owns an old home can tell you, it’s not cheap. It’s a constant amount of work,” said the museum’s PR and Marketing Director Meredith Hayes.
While grants pay for the renovation of these properties, two of which hold gallery space, the Tucson funds are for things like termite control and fixing roofs.
“One of the things that this effects is the J. Knox Corbett House, which is one of those historic building is only open by appointment only, we cannot afford to keep it open on a regular basis,” Hayes said.
At this point it’s difficult to tell if the long-term effect of these cutbacks will be viewed as something that can be weathered or the final nail in the coffin.
“If El Tour goes under I’d have to attribute it to the lack of support that we’re getting from the municipalities,” DeBernardis said.
Contact reporter Nicholas Smith at nsmith@azbiz.com or (520) 295-4238.
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