The Santa Fe City Council unanimously approved a $347.3 million city spending plan late Wednesday following debate over reserve spending and language used to describe pay increases to members of the union.
The budget represents what city officials are calling a cautiously optimistic path back from the depths of the coronavirus pandemic when the city’s Finance Department projected a budget gap of close to $83 million. The budget is $34.8 million — or 11 percent — more than the current fiscal year and includes revenues of about $338 million.
The general fund expenditures were approved by the Finance Committee at $105.9 million, a 13 percent increase from fiscal year 2021.
“It’s realistic. It’s optimistic,” Councilor Roman “Tiger” Abeyta, chairman of the city’s Finance Committee, said prior to discussion on the budget. “I think it’s something that will hopefully open us up and get our employees back to work and get the residents the services they not only deserve but hopefully will be the starting point to improving all of our lives and communities.”
The fiscal year 2022 budget includes funds to fill 58 positions frozen last year, including $1.4 million to pay for 13 sworn and civilian police department employees and $778,000 for six fire department staff members and 15 temporary wildland firefighters. In all, the city is looking to add 36 positions, for a total of 1,569 positions, compared to 1,533 in fiscal year 2021.
The budget also includes money for 4 percent increases for salary and all salary-dependent benefits for members of the local chapter of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, as well as for members of the Santa Fe Firefighters Association and the Santa Fe Police Officers Association.
The budget also includes a 4 percent salary increase for nonunion employees and a 3 percent increase for department heads.
How the 4 percent raise will be issued will be determined through the collective bargaining process, but AFSCME Local 3999, which represents city employees, issued a statement slamming the increase prior to Wednesday’s meeting, calling for more attention to “stagnant” items like bilingual pay and uniform allowances.
AFSCME, via the statement that was also read during the public comment period, called on the City Council to amend the budget to separate the 4 percent raises to salary while also addressing additional employee programs.
“The amount proportioned to AFSCME is not enough to make a significant effect to all the programs that have not [been] addressed and have been stagnant for years,” the statement read.
City Councilor JoAnne Vigil Coppler raised a number of concerns about the budget, including saying she believed the city was in a position to allow for a straight 4 percent pay increase.
The budget includes $2.3 million out of the city’s reserves to pay for increases to employee health insurance costs, but Vigil Coppler questioned whether using reserves for recurring expenses was the right way to go. In all, the city is using around $10.2 million from reserves across all funds in the budget.
Finance Department Senior Budget Officer Andy Hopkins said Vigil Coppler was correct in general, but the pandemic was a situation where dipping into the reserve made sense.
Hopkins noted that items like a $3 million budget for the Affordable Housing Trust Fund, which might not be sustainable long term, could be considered a nonrecurring cost.
”As a general rule, you are correct. It is best to use reserves only for one-time expenses,” Hopkins said. “But also you can make the argument that we are in a COVID pandemic right now and this is what reserves are really meant for.”
Vigil Coppler said her main concern about the budget was the city has yet to have its most recent independent audit.
”I don’t feel like we’re on solid, solid ground,” Vigil Coppler said. “Mainly because we don’t really have the information and the outside auditors’ review of what we are doing.”
The budget includes $3 million for the Affordable Housing Department and an additional full-time staff member.
The spending plan also includes $75,000 for an eviction hotline for tenants and mediation services between tenants and landlords as the city braces for the potential of a looming eviction crisis.
Elizabeth Elia, an assistant professor at the University of New Mexico School of Law, said during a Monday panel discussion with the Santa Fe-based economic and environmental nonprofit Chainbreaker Collective that close to 5,700 evictions could occur in Santa Fe once moratoria are lifted.
A 19.8 percent bump to the Planning and Land Use Department received praise, but Vigil Coppler asked if there would be goals and performance standards for the department.
Land Use Director Eli Isaacson said the increase in general fund revenue to fund more positions in his department will help it be more responsive to customers.
Additional highlights of the budget include $1 million to fund summer recreation programs, fill lifeguard positions and open recreation centers.
The Culture, History, Art, Reconciliation and Truth process, which will allow the city to address potentially harmful monuments, will receive $326,000. The spending plan also includes $200,000 for funding a growth management study.
