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Pima County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry s recommend 2022 fiscal year budget includes increased funding for childhood education, more than 100 miles of road repair and body cameras for local deputies, among other items. (Getty Images/iStockphoto)
TUCSON, AZ Pima County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry s recommend 2022 fiscal year budget includes increased funding for childhood education, more than 100 miles of road repair and body cameras for local deputies, among other items.
The proposed $2.1 billion budget, which will go before the Pima County Board of Supervisors on May 11 and 12, includes a one-time, $300 million funding requirement of the Public Safety Retirement System fund, the county said.
Additionally, the county s budget reflects $350 million in federal funding for assorted COVID-19 pandemic-related costs.
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In Pima County, 399,423 people, or about 38% of the population, have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine as of Friday. Of those, 318,105 have been fully vaccinated.
In Arizona, 2,925,915 people, or about 41% of the population, have received at least one dose. The number of people fully vaccinated, according to state health department data, is 2,272,501.
Hereâs what we know about COVID-19 and vaccines this week.
FEMA mobile units
FEMA is sending two mobile vaccination units to Pima County to help reach harder-to-access or underserved communities.
Supervisor Matt Heinz and Supervisor Adelita Grijalva voted against the resolution.Â
Supervisor Rex Scott said he brought forth the resolution for several reasons. Most notably, Scott believes the rate increase is based on trying to get unincorporated areas to either incorporate or be annexed by the closest municipality, not because it costs more to deliver water to unincorporated residents. A majority of the Tucson Water customers who would be affected are in Scottâs District 1.Â
âThe city has decided as a means of generating additional revenue for the utility that they are going to charge higher rates to people who live outside the city limits, but only if they live in unincorporated Pima County,â Scott said. âRoughly 34% of Tucson Water customers live outside the city limits and about 28% of that is unincorporated Pima County, while the other 6% is in Marana, Oro Valley or South Tucson.âÂ
The Sonoran Desert is not what it used to be. Over the past century, invasive grasses have spread across the region and transformed the landscape from the familiar diverse desert to more of an arid grassland that is highly susceptible to fires. Invasive grasses from buffelgrass to red brome to love grass have dramatically altered how fire can move through the desert. Places that used to burn once every 200 years may now be burning every 20 years because these grasses serve as a fuel source than can easily spread wildfires. They sprout up in places that would normally be barren, connecting otherwise separate patches of desert plants.
Pima County in late March appeared to have won its battle with the state for a federally operated COVID-19 vaccine site. However, the victory was short-lived.
County officials said they won t be getting a vaccine site operated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, but that another plan for vaccinating hard-to-reach county residents with federal help is in the works.
Rather than having one or more COVID-19 sites operated by FEMA, the southern Arizona county is asking the federal agency for six mobile vaccination clinics that could travel to underserved areas, with the ability to do 250 to 350 vaccinations per day each.