Mayor Keller signs $1.4B budget for City of Albuquerque

By KOB

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ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Mayor Tim Keller signed off on the $1.4 billion spending plan Friday. 

Keller said this is the hardest budget he’s worked on since taking office. That’s because there was no extra money to throw around. 

The budget provides funding for the Albuquerque Police Department to boost staffing up to around $1,000 officers, and millions for the city’s efforts to combat homelessness.

City employees can expect a 3.5% raise The city is also putting nearly $17 million to close the “pay equity gap” in around 900 positions in the city. 

“I will tell you the pay equity issue was the right thing to do, and so I’m proud that we did that as a city – we had to do, we should have done a long time ago. And so we just decided we’re going to rip the Band-Aid off, and we’re going to try and do this right going forward,” said Keller. 

City officials say they did have to tighten their belt a bit. They did that in part by eliminating some open city positions. Taxes will not go up.