By Jesse Jones, City Desk in The Paper. — The City Council passed the city’s largest-ever budget, $1.5 billion, Monday night overcoming earlier warnings from the mayor that future spending would have to be cut to meet slower economic projections.
The spending plan, passing 7-2, with councilors Brook Bassan and Dan Lewis voting against it, uses nearly $12 million in projected fund balances left out of the mayor’s original proposal to restore some city jobs that Mayor Tim Keller proposed cutting and secures community funding through floor amendments passed by councilors in a marathon markup meeting. Committee of the Whole chair Renée Grout said council staff identified an $11.8 million discrepancy in the administration’s calculations. Councilors used that money to restore city services and fund pay raises, while blocking proposed fee increases for trash pickup, stormwater management, and BioPark admissions.
In a flurry of changes to the committee substitute, Councilors debated 19 floor amendments, and passing 14 of those. Some of those amendments chopped $1 million from early retirement funds and add over $2.2 million for regional substance use treatment and Gateway Center shelter operations. Other amendments included $1 million in cannabis revenue for another guaranteed basic income pilot, $586,000 for domestic violence housing vouchers, $160,000 for the downtown 516 ARTS space, and over $3 million for homeless encampment cleanups. A $2.47 million for the Vision Zero traffic safety initiative. drew criticism from neighborhood safety advocates who said shifting some funds toward temporary crossing guards instead of permanent street redesigns weakens long-term safety efforts.
The budget now goes to the mayor’s desk, where he can use line-item veto power to strike specific changes before state review. However, council budget staff warned the veto power is all-or-nothing: if Keller vetoes a funding line, he cannot adjust the amount and the program’s funding drops to zero.