Residents demand more heat relief in proposed Phoenix budget

Joe Duhownik

PHOENIX (CN) — City Councilmember Anna Hernandez said Tuesday that she will oppose the city of Phoenix’s proposed fiscal year 2025-2026 budget as long as it prioritizes increased police funding over social services.

“I have a huge concern over the $1 billion budget to our police department,” the former state senator and activist told the rest of the council Tuesday afternoon. “We’re saying we will continue to underinvest in root cause solutions that would reduce community hardships and protect our residents. Once again, we are increasing police funding, responding to a crisis that our communities are facing with more criminalization, more threats of police violence.”

Chief among the social services that residents demand receive more funding in the proposed budget is heat relief in Maryvale, one of Phoenix’s most underserved neighborhoods. Tucked in the northwest corner of the city, temperatures in Maryvale often rise six degrees higher than other areas of the city, exacerbated by the urban heat island effect and the lack of trees and foliage compared to wealthier neighborhoods.

Hernandez said there’s a 14-year difference in life expectancy of Maryvale residents compared to those in north Phoenix.

Representing the nonprofit group Rumbo.io, which aims to help desert cities adapt amid a worsening climate crisis, residents of Maryvale asked that Phoenix’s office of heat relief and mitigation work hand in hand with Rumbo to develop a more specialized heat response strategy.

“It’s time for more intentional targeted investments that meet the urgency of what we’re facing,” said Dafne Cortez, a resident of Maryvale and member of Rumbo. “We need a community-led heat planning initiative.”

Residents asked the city to set aside more dollars for planting trees, installing shade structures and developing cooler materials with which to build streets and sidewalks. Others asked specifically for shaded bus stops and bike routes.

While the city’s proposed budget includes no Maryvale-specific heat relief funding, the city council in November approved $60 million in funding for a five-year project to plant 27,000 new trees and erect more than 5,000 shade structures across the city. The city’s proposed $3 million increase to the Office of Homeless Solutions will, in part, fund heat relief as well.

Councilmember Laura Pastor, typically more aligned with the views of those speaking at public meetings, defended the city’s efforts Tuesday afternoon.

“To hear that we haven’t done anything for Maryvale is inaccurate,” she said. “I know that we have planted many trees in Maryvale.”

She mentioned that the city also intends to install at least 80 shaded bus stops per year, prioritizing those most frequently used.

“We acknowledge that there’s a lot of stuff the city’s doing,” Cortez replied after the meeting. “We’re just asking for a little bit more.”

Though most residents who have spoken at budget information sessions across the city ask for a reduced police budget in exchange for greater social services, the department will receive an increase of $46 million from the city’s general fund, though budget research director Amber Williamson said most of the increased funding will be used for salary raises, pension plans and overtime pay to compensate for the department’s 500-officer hiring deficit.

The Phoenix Fire Department will also see an increase of $25 million thanks to a sales tax increase the council approved in March. Still, though, some residents asked that more be spent on the fire department in an effort to increase staffing and cut average response times in half.

Thanks to the increase, the city is now anticipating a $17 million surplus that it will set aside for any unforeseen costs. Hernandez said the city needs more than that to combat federal budget cuts enacted by the Trump administration.

“We’ve already seen Trump's attacks on our city department,” she said. “We heard about the reduction in funding for emergency housing vouchers. I don't believe that this budget pushes hard enough to respond to those attacks and protect our people and our workers. I do not feel this budget.”

The council will vote on the proposed budget on May 21. Tentative citywide adoption of the budget is scheduled for June 4, with final adoption on June 18.