Marana Town Council to vote on big raise; OV strategic plan ready for vote
The city of Tucson still considering buying Tucson Electric Power as potential costs exceed $1.5 billion, RTA drama to continue, Pima County Supervisors consider budget and more from local government meetings around Tucson this week:
The Tucson City Council will be getting an update to their intergalactic plan to buy Tucson Electric Power or take over some of the electrical grid.
The Council will discuss the ins and outs of the issue during a study session on Tuesday.
The city has been studying how (and if) to make a big jump into the utility business for reasons I don't necessarily understand. I'm not sure how many voters went to the polls thinking "Y'know the problem with Tucson? TEP exists as a private business and the city doesn't run it."
GDS Associates, Inc., a Georgia-based consultant group, has finished a draft feasibility study about how deep the city can get into the electric business.
Buying the whole shebang would be the most expensive and complicated thing the city has done, maybe ever.
The consultants took a stab at the price of the plant and distribution center, pegging the cost of buying TEP at $1.2 billion. But that's based on 2021 numbers. When GDS adjusted it for 2023 dollars, it's more like $1.5 billion.
Then GDS tallied up the replacement cost of TEP, if the whole thing was built anew. The total cost was estimated at $5 billion but they included some accounting wizardry, cutting the "customer share" from that amount. Well, more than half of TEP's customers are city taxpayers. So it's like they are saying "No, that sales tax-funded project costs only half the actual price because we'll take the other half out of property taxes."
So if you hear talk about $2.8 billion, that's how that number was conjured.
Remember, TEP can oppose this sale and fight it like badgers. They can also demand top dollar. So the higher value estimates can represent the asking price, assuming the utility is even a willing seller. They've made it clear they wouldn't be.
The consultant also differentiates between "the City" and TEP customers and that's completely understandable from a business accounting standpoint. However, the city is mostly funded by people who happen to be TEP customers. TEP's customer base ain't Yuma.
Depending on the pricing model, a customer may not start seeing savings for at least five years under a city-operated utility. After 16 years, GDS projects the customer may realize more than $50 a month in savings. That's not nothing, but it assumes the city manages the utility better than TEP does now.
The plan would also allow Tucson to achieve carbon neutrality by 2025.
Five years ago, that was enough to sway me. After the 2024 election, I've come to realize that climate change is absolutely inevitable because voters don't give a crap. Their egg budgets went up $12 a month (for reasons that have nothing to do with public policy), so they voted for a president who thinks "the more carbon the better."
"Eff everybody. Eff the future. I want my Denver omelette," goes that thinking.
It's time to start thinking mitigation.
GDS also pondered other, less aggressive options, such as Community Choice Aggregation. That's a fancy way of saying the city could buy power from various sources and transmit it across lines still owned by TEP.
One minor ... uhhh ... insurmountable problem. It's illegal in Arizona. The Legislature would have to change state law to make this happen. That ain't gonna happen if for no other reason than Republicans will do nothing to assist a city that votes Democratic.
The consultant also discussed microgrids. They could gain traction. Microgirds are just that - small electrical grids. They help back up critical infrastructure and can be run alongside or independent of the main grid, to serve neighborhoods.
The city or community groups can install these systems, but they must be run according to TEP's rules.
A conceit at play here is that big organizations come to believe they can do all things well because they can do some things well. I don't know if that's proven to be a durable idea.
General Electric was a really well-run company. Then they figured they can run a bank because they make appliances. Ooops. GE Capital nearly broke the conglomerate. It's just one example of many.
Tucson delivers water well. Does that mean it can deliver power with the same effectiveness?
Also, and this is just a crazy thought, what else could Tucson do with a billion dollars?
Taxes & RTA drama continues
The City Council will also discuss the tentative municipal budget during the study session. The spending plan is up for approval during the subsequent regular meeting Tuesday evening.
The $2.4 billion budget sets the spending limit. Changes can be made within the budget but those changes can't exceed that cap.
It comes with $6.6 million in revenue increases that City Manager Tim Thomure has recommended. There's an increase in parking fees, an advertising tax, selling naming rights at Tucson Convention Center and a hotel bed tax and surcharge.
Without these taxes, cuts would be required in operations. Or, depending on your values, instead of rolling back government services, the city is going to raise taxes and fees.
Thomure isn't asking for any major new investments or spending plans. The new money is needed to maintain existing city services.
The city has to figure out what to do about free bus service. It has been paid for out of federal coronavirus relief dollars, which are no longer available. Without a funding source, keeping Sun Tran free will be difficult.
The Council is also going to have a study session discussion about a new possible 20-year renewal of the Regional Transportation Authority.
Councilmembers have been cool to the whole RTA thing, which is funny because the whole RTA thing started in the mid-00's to accommodate Tucson. The city needed help getting voters to approve a transportation plan.
Ahead of a new 20-year plan for paying for road construction across the county, Tucson is wondering what happened to work that was promised in the voter-approved 2006 plan but isn't expected to be finished once the tax expires in 2026. City leaders want the projects done.
Then there's the matter of Tucson's councilmembers feeling dissed by Farhad Moghimi, who runs the RTA program. Councilmember Kevin Dahl wants him gone. Mayor Regina Romero basically tore him all sorts of new ones during an April meeting over her inability to get city issues addressed.
Moghimi's attitude is that he's done his job well and right because auditors always say so.
Finally, there's the idea that the city should get all the RTA sales taxes collected in the city limits returned in the form of investment. The city has talked about going its own way with a half-cent sales tax, which would probably kill the $2.5 billion regional plan.
Dudes, there's a cost to maintaining an alliance and governing across jurisdictions.
Speaking of governing across jurisdictions, lawyers for the City Council and the Pima County Board of Supervisors will discuss a possible settlement in the long-running battle over water.
Tucson Water wants to charge customers more if they live outside the city limits.
An earlier city effort failed in 2022 when a Maricopa County Superior Court judge ruled the city's differential rate plan was not based on any evidence the surcharge was needed.
So the city did a study, got the evidence and is now plowing ahead with even bigger differential rates.
Governments get caught up in their status as legal entities and forget things like all Tucson residents are county voters and more than half of all county residents are city voters.
Low-intensity conflict has always been a part of the city-county story.
The city is flagrantly giving the bird to the county. The policy pursued is warranted but it's not the best way to make friends or maintain an alliance.
Forever issues
The Council must work with the county on issues like, oh, I don't know, unsheltered folks.
The city staff will give the council a rundown of the latest efforts to deal with homelessness.
One interesting item in the report shows that the city is, in fact, removing the vast majority of people who city staff encounter at camps.
The city runs a three-tier system, where Tier 1 camps are self-governing and really no problem. They make up 17 percent of the camp encounters during the first four months of 2025. Tier 2 camps, are more interesting mixes of people, but deemed no real threat. That's 11 percent. Tier 3 are risks to health and safety and they get cleared. That's 19 percent.
There are three other categories, including 33 percent of encounters who are just immediately removed for one reason or another. Some sleep in closed parks and are told to move on and another are camps on private property and those cases are sent to code enforcement.
So, no. The city isn't coddling the homeless. They are demanding they move along.
It's also time for a regular update related to the cleanup of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).
The so-called "forever chemicals" are found in Tucson's water. It's been used as an aircraft fire-fighting agent and seeped underneath Davis-Monthan Air Force Base and Tucson International Airport.
Testing conducted in the first quarter of the year found PFAS throughout the main Tucson Water system to be well within standards set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
The Silverbell West isolated system is more touch-and-go so the city is treating water for PFAS at the source.
Explaining all the changes would be difficult and this piece is already going to be way too long. Feel free to check out the maps.
The changes involve routes 2 (Pueblo Gardens), 12 (South 12 Avenue), 16 (North Oracle Road), 18 (South Sixth (Avenue), 21 (West Congress and North Silverbell Road), 23 (South Mission Road) 25 (South Park Avenue), 26 (Benson Highway), 27 (Midvale Park) 29 (Valencia Road) and 62 (West Ina Road).
Sun Tran is consolidating some routes to open up resources and provide higher-frequency service on busier routes.
Another public hearing will be held for the public to comment on Tucson's proposed 10-year general plan. It is ready for Council approval before heading for a vote of the people later this year.
The general plan is used to guide Tucson's growth. There doesn't seem to be much in the way of major changes.
One new element in the planning is something I wrote about a couple years ago and that is Tucson's dive into high-density, mixed-use planning along several major thoroughfares around Tucson.
This will allow better infill opportunity and hopefully create more affordable housing options.
Plan 2025 also calls for annexation to the north, east and south - but not the west, apparently.
County taxes
The Pima County Board of Supervisors will vote on their $1.8 billion tentative budget for fiscal year 2025-26, during their regular meeting Tuesday.
The budget calls for $32 million more in spending and tax increases to pay for infrastructure, legislative cost shifts to the county and holding the line on a reserve fund. The cash reserves have equaled 17 percent of the general fund and County Administrator Jan Lesher's recommended budget would lower that to 15 percent.
Additionally, the board will vote on a plan by Supervisor Matt Heinz for a 3-cent property tax increase to pay for affordable housing programs.
Heinz may have the votes to pull this off, depending on how new Democratic supervisors Jen Allen and Andres Cano vote. They showed some willingness to consider Heinz's proposal. It got something of a boost when the Regional Affordable Housing Commission endorsed his plan as part of a multi-pronged policy to fund home-building.
County departments submitted $70.1 million in extra funding requests above the current fiscal year's spending. Lesher approved $67.2 million of those requests. That's a lot in my experience.
Departments are usually lucky to get a third of their supplemental requests.
The county has more of a cushion in the result of a recession because it is more dependent on property taxes. Taxable valuations have not yet caught up to the market values in Pima County. So even if property values fall, property tax collections should continue to rise.
On the other hand, the whole economic picture remains unknown. Maybe we'll be in a recession at the end of the year if tariffs bite. Maybe things will roar if the trade war ends.
Jan Lesher says her budget represents a cautious and strategic approach to federal grants, which make up a decent chunk of the budget for county social services. The Trump administration has taken a hammer to those.
There's also a 3.56-cent tax increase on $100 of assessed valuation. That works out to an increase of 0.8 percent.
Lesher's budget calls for a 1-cent reduction in the secondary property tax rate. Rising property values make that cut possible.
Cost shifts (unfunded mandates from the state) cost the county $125 million or just over a quarter of the county's $500 million general fund of unrestricted money.
Lesher's budget focuses on providing quality services over austerity. Her focuses remain on health care, early education and improvements to the justice system and additional money to protect tenants against eviction.
Supervisors will also switch gears and act as the Flood Control District Board and Library District Board, approving those budgets as well.
Going pyro
The county board is also set to change its fireworks policy, with new language requiring notification of neighbors within 1,000 feet of the display before submitting an application.
No fireworks display can begin with winds exceeding 10 miles per hour. The appropriate fire department would measure the wind speed.
Fireworks are limited to launches between sunset and 11 p.m. There's one exemption but I don't think they got the date right. They will allow fireworks until 1 a.m. on Dec. 31. I think they mean "after midnight on Jan. 1."
No display can be allowed when the U.S. Drought Monitor weekly report declares conditions "severe," extreme," or "exceptional."
Oh and the shooters have to make sure they clear a fire and launch area, designated by firefighters.
If a fireworks company causes a blaze, it must properly restore the property.
The board will vote on whether to approve June 28 fireworks displays at Tucson Speedway, starting at 9 p.m., and Forty Niner Country Club, which will start at 8:45 p.m.
A pair of July 4 displays are also set for approval at the Tucson Country Club, beginning at 9 p.m., and Skyline Country Club, 8:30 p.m.
Up north a ways, the Marana Town Council will vote on nearly doubling their own pay, while the mayor would get a 76 percent pay increase.
Hold the torches and pitchforks for a moment. Context follows.
The mayor and council received their last raise in 2009, when council members' monthly pay was set at $1,367 and the mayor's was established at $1,750 a month.
The new pay will be $31,000 a year for the town council and $37,000 for the mayor, if approved by the council. That's right about minimum wage at 40 hours a week.
Councilmembers will also get car allowances of $350 a month. The mayor will get $500 monthly for a vehicle. But hold on. The vice mayor - not a real job - will get $400.
I'll let the vice mayor thing go. Whatever. It's $50. Something else sticks in my craw.
This item was discussed during a February retreat. The meeting was in Chandler. Yeah, that's where it gets chickenspit.
If the Marana Council is going to hold a retreat, at least keep it close to constituents. That way, it won't look like they are hiding from voters how they are discussing giving themselves tidy raises.
The pay increases themselves are fine but talk about it in a Marana ZIP code.
The council did something right, though. The raises don't go into effect until after the 2026 general election. Four of the six council members and Mayor Tom Post will have their terms end before the raise shows up in anybody's paycheck.
Next door, Oro Valley's strategic plan will be up for a final vote by the town council during its meeting Wednesday.
The plan includes a kinda cryptic but interesting tidbit about "diversifying income streams to align with maintenance and capacity needs."
The town gets most of its money from four sources: 25 percent from sales taxes; 23 percent from outside funding sources; 19 percent from state shared revenue; and 14 percent from water sales.
So the town is looking to avoid relying too much on just a few sources to pay for its operations.
That's smart.
The downside is that more things around town could end up taxed or hit with a fee.
The town will also get an update on its 10-year general plan, now being put together by a citizens group. The Resident Working Group is halfway through a three-year process to come up with the plan.
"OV's Path Forward" is a lot like the city's plan discussed earlier. But it will focus on 13 different priorities, ranging from transportation to art, to community character and housing.
However, Oro Valley also wants to focus on climate and sustainability, even if that ship's sails are dropping over the horizon.
It's basically all the priorities every other community has but maybe they can put an Oro Valley spin on the list.
Looking southward, the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors has rescheduled the regular meeting planned for Tuesday until Thursday, May 29.
However, the board will hold a special meeting on Tuesday, when they were supposed to hold the regular meeting.
The county's agenda is super light, with just a rundown on the cash position (a $17 million cash balance) and approval of the hiring of a few county positions.