Other articles by Andrea Kelly:

Road runner : Crosswalk, 4-way stop baffle some motorists County hopes to buy, save Hohokam site New team to run Rio Nuevo projects Ghost Ranch project still alive Recent fights at state prison could cost county Developers evicting Rialto Foundation Road runner : I-10 work going well, traffic tie-ups aside Road runner : Fewer deaths tied to dip in rural driving RTA: Don't blame us for water feeRoad runner: Dump the Pump encourages leaving car at home for a day

Finance and Accounting
Charles E. Gillman Company
Accounting Specialist Administrative & Professional
Jorgensen Brooks Group
Counselor Mechanical
Komatsu Equipment Co
Resident Field Mechanic Administrative & Professional
Tucson Urban League
CEO/President Trades/Construction
RANCHO RESORT
MAINTANANCE POSITION Sales and Marketing
Everready Glass
Sales Reps

Holiday cheer may be in short supply at City Hall if Councilman Steve Leal is able to push through a plan to dump some paid holidays to balance the budget.

Leal has proposed all city employees take not one, but two days off at Christmas and Thanksgiving — unpaid. The four-day furloughs would save taxpayers $4 million a year, he says.

Cutting off payments to Pima Animal Care, forcing the county to pick up the full cost of animal control, would save another $1.4 million, Leal suggests.

The specter of forced unpaid leave — not just in the city, as Pima County is considering a similar, less specific, proposal — has public employee union representatives worried, even as they acknowledge the problem the two governments face.

"The union is very concerned about cuts to the city work force in these tough economic times," said Kenneth Riley, executive director of the local chapter of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.

The union recognizes budgets are tightening for local governments, and it plans to work with the city for an alternative, Riley said.

"We're prepared to sit down in partnership to look for solutions proactively and positively with the city management and council," he said.

The same goes for the county, he said.

Just as the city would expect to save about $4 million in providing four unpaid days off, the county could save about $1 million for every unpaid day off, County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry said.

Leal called his ideas for balancing the budget in the face of an imploding economy "a collection of two-edged swords."

Four unpaid days off for the holidays may be an emotional issue for employees, but so is the prospect of laying off enough employees to save $4 million, Leal said.

"So that may mean that a whole lot of other people left in the system may have to work a lot harder. Which one is the worst burden?" he said.

Leal said the suggestions he submitted to City Manager Mike Hein were an effort to find ways to cut the budget without cutting too many services.

While shifting more of the animal-control burden to the county would help the city's bottom line, it wouldn't mean a savings for taxpayers since the county would have to make up the difference, and city taxpayers are also county taxpayers. And the county would have to raise its fees to replace the city subsidy.

But Leal said it's no different from the city paying to run any other county department. He would suggest the city re-evaluate all agreements between it and other governments to eliminate taxpayers paying twice for some services.

Huckelberry said that rather than raising taxes to pay for animal control, or reducing the budget for it, the county would likely look at higher licensing fees.

Licensing fees would probably have to go up from $12 to $26 per license to make up the $1.4 million the county receives from the city, Huckelberry said.

Some other suggestions on Leal's list include rezoning and selling city land, evaluating evening and weekend use of recreation centers to make sure they're open when they're most used and closed when they're not, and changing the way signage and vehicle impound work.

He also suggests examining all on-call pay. Some employees receive extra pay to be on-call, and others take city vehicles home each night. Employees who have either of those should be evaluated to ensure the on-call and vehicle are necessary, Leal says.

The City Council will discuss revenue generation at Tuesday's meeting.