City weighs priorities for next budget
What would you focus on for the coming year, readers?
If you were in charge of the city of Yuma, what would your top priorities and goals be?
At a Yuma City Council retreat last week, members shared their visions, with public safety taking a high priority.
But ultimately, it all comes down to money. To provide services, the city council must find ways to pay for said services, and that is a challenge. How does the city pay for the needs and wants on the table?
Take road repairs. We’re all familiar with the potholes and cracks in the road, as is the city. At the retreat last week, City Administrator Greg Wilkinson pointed out that the Highway Revenue Users Funds aren’t making their way back to Yuma, with the state continually sweeping the funds.
Compounding the problem is the 2017 hurricane season, which drove up the cost of asphalt by 107 percent, concrete by 61 percent, and metal by 45 percent, making it that much more expensive to fix roads. We need to fix those roads, yet we need to pay for those repairs too.
Roads aren’t the only challenge facing the city. The city is also facing increasing costs for the Public Safety Personnel Retirement System and challenges with the minimum wage hike. Council members also raised concerns about increasing the pay rate for police and firefighters, to help keep those employees in Yuma.
The city must also continually strive to be business-friendly, and work to bring new business — and with it, much needed jobs — to Yuma.
Ask a Yuman on the street for their priorities for the city, and the answer might sound a little different, because people tend to focus on more tangible items. Roads likely would still top the list, but so too would keeping the streets free of graffiti, preventing crime, and improving traffic flow through Yuma’s busier intersections.
Other priorities might include keeping parks clean, finding solutions to the homeless situation, and working with businesses to clean up Yuma’s entry points off of Interstate 8, to make the city more visually appealing as one enters our city.
Of course, it all still comes down to money. How does the city pay for these changes? What should be prioritized, what should be cut, and what innovative ideas could raise funds to pay for it all? Is it time to increase the sales tax, or is there a better idea out there?
As the city considers its upcoming priorities, now is a good time to weigh in. What would you like to see, readers? Let me know. Comment on this column at www.YumaSun.com, or send me a Letter to the Editor at letters@yumasun.com.
DO YOU AGREE WITH THIS OR NOT?