As KSFR has been reporting, Santa Fe’s municipal budget for the coming fiscal year was approved during last night’s city council meeting. The 82.2 million dollar general fund budget closes Santa Fe’s 15 million dollar deficit. The Santa Fe New Mexican reports that earlier plans to reduce Santa Fe city library hours were removed from the proposal. The council left it up to library leadership and the city manager to figure out the specifics, but hours at the main downtown library and two branch libraries will remain unchanged in the coming fiscal year. City Finance Director Oscar Rodriguez says Santa Fe’s budget is balanced for the first time in eight years or more.
Councilors also passed a resolution to appropriate 300,000 dollars in land use fees to establish the Verde Fund, an at-times-controversial plan to wed the imperatives to confront systemic poverty in Santa Fe and to reach a goal of carbon neutrality by 2040. But the vote wasn’t unanimous.
Although Mayor Gonzales called the resolution budget-neutral, it was difficult for councilors to see things that way, especially in the meeting during which the council would also approve the budget for the coming fiscal year. Councilor Joseph Maestas took issue with the proposed funding source to launch the Verde Fund.