As Tucson grapples with a $32 million budget deficit, the city manager is proposing a tax on residential rental properties that is expected to draw a huge crowd to the City Council meeting Tuesday night.
Amid the national economic crisis, a decrease in sales taxes has forced City Manager Mike Letcher to come up with ways to plug the financial hole. Under his proposal, a 2 percent tax would be imposed on all rental properties.
Letcher proposed the tax to avoid layoffs in the Police and Fire Departments, which in December he said needed to cut their budgets by a total of 15 percent.
But tenants and tenant advocates argue that landlords would inevitably pass along the increase to renters.
Along with the tax, the council is also expected to vote on whether to lay off other city employees and reduce city employees’ pay.
Because hundreds of people are expected to attend Tuesday’s meeting, it is being moved from City Hall to the Tucson Convention Center at 260 S. Church Ave. The meeting is scheduled to begin at 5:30 p.m.