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This past Tuesday, our City Council voted 5-3 to give preliminary authorization for a tax rate of $.809487 per $100 of property valuation, increasing the tax upon the average-valued residence by $132 per year. Only Reps Chavez, Nino, and Limon dissented.
The Mayor, who had campaigned hard on lowering the City property tax, did not utter a single word in opposition to the proposed tax increase.
In fact, his only contribution to the discussion was blaming the previous City Council for using $7 million of fund balance to achieve a no-new-revenue tax rate and prevent a tax increase.
Dr. Sam Armijo, who is running against Alejandra Chavez to represent District 1, was the only member of the public to comment on this issue. After thoroughly reviewing the proposed FY 2027 budget, he proposed cutting $21 million, including $5 million from beautification projects, $5 million from discretionary spending, $6 million from incentive programs and non-essential initiatives, and the entire $783,447 budget of the “Climate, Sustainability, & Energy” unit.
Amen!
Dr. Armijo holds a PhD in Materials Science from Stanford University, was General Manager of Global Nuclear Fuels for General Electric, administered $500 million in orders, and has more financial acumen than the Mayor and all eight members of City Council combined.
We have every confidence in his ability to cut spending and strongly endorse his campaign to unseat the incumbent Alejandra Chavez.
In addition to Armijo’s suggestions, we would also cut the public art program and all the associated staff, slash the budget of the Office of the City Architect, subtract 5% from Sun Metro, sell the water parks and trolleys to the private sector, introduce spending caps for the Police and Fire contracts, repeal the $925,366 in raises for upper administrators, ban public funding for the Debt Plaza, ban TIRZs in open space, ban 380 agreements that lack clawback provisions and rigorously enforce existing agreements, eliminate tax abatements for local developers, and forcibly renegotiate the Ballpark contract.
That would be a good start.
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