The Santa Fe Governing Board has approved the budget for the upcoming fiscal year.
The nearly $383 million budget is an increase of $25.5 million, or just over seven-percent above pre-pandemic levels.
The City Council Finance Committee spent the good part of the past two weeks working on the budget with the help of numerous city department directors and their staff.
Committee Chair Carol Romero-Wirth says revenues have recovered to levels previously reached before COVID.
She says the budget makes strategic investments to build back city government particularly in workforce and essential services and helps those who need the government's assistance the most.
“It also reestablishes the level of funding for art, culture and history work. This area is funded by the lodgers tax and had to be cut fairly dramatically during the pandemic,” she said. “We’re seeing that funding being restored here and a lot of investment and work being done to revitalize and help our art and culture community.”
Along the budget, City Manager John Blair addressed the news that CliftonLarsonAllen has resigned from helping the city with its very late legally required audit.
Blair says they are moving as quickly as possible to hire another firm and while State Auditor Brian Colón has said publicly he would take some drastic measures, nothing official has come from his office.