Mayor Webber: City Poised to Spend Millions on Civic Projects

Downtown safety. Road repair. The Affordable Housing Trust Fund. More pallet shelters for the unhoused. These are some of the priorities Santa Fe Mayor Alan Webber identified for forthcoming one-time investments during his annual State of the City address Thursday night.

“These are all investments that city councilors, city workers and the people of Santa Fe are eager to see move ahead,” Webber said. “They are one-time investments in a better future for our city.”

The mayor said the investments will be outlined during a special May 28 meeting with the governing body.

“It’s an opportunity to—for the first time, really—showcase to the public and the governing body what priorities are that have been expressed,” Webber tells SFR, who noted he and the Council won’t vote on the investments during next week’s meeting. “Some of them came from conversations with Council members during the budget process. Some of them came from many of our department heads, some from residents.”

The $56 million supplemental budget for the investments, as he described in his speech, come from “years of consistent conservative budgeting” that helped the city grow its cash reserves; capital projects funds and more. City officials will use $20 million dollars from the cash reserves; $16 million from capital projects funds and $17.8 million from the city’s Utility Department for “system upgrades and improvements to our critical infrastructure,” Webber said.

Yet the city will still maintain $31 million in cash reserves—twice the amount required by state law—he noted, in order to preserve the city’s bond rating and “never leave the city exposed to emergencies like another pandemic or tragic fire.”

The mayor also touted what he characterized as recent city victories in his speech, including the submission of three fiscal year audits in 11 months and the launch of the Safe Outdoor Spaces pallet home project at Christ Lutheran Church.

“Our city is strong, it is beautiful and it is blessed,” Webber said. “No one else has what Santa Fe has always had—and always will have—we love this place and we care for it, and we care for each other. And as long as that is the state of our city, we will be blessed and we will be strong.”