City of Phoenix facing big cuts... (Good Job Phil)

Good job Phil... We just passed a tax increase to pay for more police and fire, but we are facing huge cuts in city services and staff. Here is the article. I cannot help but think that this is pure incompetence. The simple fact is that a growing city like Phoenix should never have staff cuts. The worst case scenario for a well run and growing city should be a hiring freeze. The reason for this is the need to keep a balanced ratio of residents to city employees (for trash pickup, road maintenance, police, fire, graffiti control etc). People will continue to move to Phoenix at the same rate, but now not only will the city not add new employees thus falling behind the demand for basic services, but they will compound the problem by eliminating positions.

I have spent a lot of time around municipal finances in Arizona and there is almost never a reason for these sorts of cut backs except mismanagement. The only cities that are really in danger are those that are built out (like Tempe or have structure funding problems like Mesa), but Tempe is not having the problem because of good planning by making sure revenue streams were built up while their state shared revenue declined. At one point, Tempe (I have not checked lately) held huge reserves collected during good times to get them through these types of downturns. What is your excuse Phoenix?

Phoenix’s state shared revenue will continue to grow. Leaders in Phoenix (or voters) have not made dumb structural decisions like Mesa (like not a having a property tax). One culprit that immediately comes to my mind are the huge give backs given to retailers (or this one) to get them to locate in the city. Here is the problem: Wal-Mart will move here regardless, stop giving them tax money.

This whole thing is frustrating and unacceptable. Note to the Mayor: Please run for John Shadegg's seat (as a Republican).

Here is more information on state shared revenue:
http://www.azleg.state.az.us/briefs/Senate/STATE%20SHARED%20REVENUES.pdf
http://www.azleague.org/pdf/07shared_revenue.pdf