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Some council members urge budget tradeoffs, not taxes, to fund firefighters
Summary
Council Members Clark Taylor and Tim Holley pushed for reviewing wage increases and other General Fund expenditures as alternatives to raising property taxes, arguing the Council should identify specific tradeoffs before adopting a tax increase. Staff cautioned that some recent wage increases reflected market adjustments needed to retain employees.
Several Council members urged the Council to exhaust internal budget options before approving a tax increase. Council Member Clark Taylor said he was philosophically opposed to using taxation as the default fix and asked staff and colleagues to identify programs or policies that could be reduced or deferred; he emphasized protecting core services while evaluating discretionary items. Council Member Tim Holley suggested reviewing wage increases, proposing smaller raises in some departments and phasing costs to free funds for firefighter staffing.
City staff and other Council members warned that some recent pay increases were market-driven. Ms. Montoya and Mr. Bunker said the city benchmarks compensation against comparable local governments and that certain departments (for example, the library, engineering, and building inspection) required above-inflation adjustments to recruit and retain qualified staff. Council Member Carroll said she wanted to understand the reasons behind department increases before imposing a uniform cap.
