berry presser 016

Referring to the budget crunch faced by the city of Albuquerque as a “fiscal difficulty” would be understating the problem, Mayor Richard Berry said at a news conference today.

Halfway into the 2010 fiscal year, the best case scenario for the city is a revenue shortfall of a little more than $12 million, he said. That’s due to a decline in gross receipts tax revenues of 9.4 percent compared to last year. If tax collections don’t begin to recover in the second half of the year, the city could be faced with a potential $32 million shortfall, he said.

Taking what he called a conservative approach to balancing the budget, Berry said he’s planning for a $19 million shortfall for the year, and  will continue to monitor the situation and make further adjustments if it becomes clear that the shortfall will exceed $19 million.

To cut $19 million from the city’s budget, Berry has proposed legislation that reduces—or, more technically, “de-appropriates”—the current budget by $7.5 million. The rest will be found through a cost reduction plan that includes asking each city department to find ways to trim their budgets by 2 percent for the remainder of the fiscal year.  The 2 percent cuts represent a 4 percent annualized cut to each department.

Additionally, Berry said, the cost of appointed positions has been reduced by more than $500,000 because of his transition. There are no lay-offs or furloughs included in the plan, although as the departments review how to achieve the 2 percent cuts it might become necessary. Berry called on city unions to work with him to identify ways to balance the budget.

Here’s a video snippet from the presser (just because we can):