PIMA — Pima is the scene for the majority of growth in the Gila Valley today, but that doesn’t mean an abundance of cash is coming in to the town to fund basic services.
So town leaders are looking to their neighbors to help the revenue stream.
“We’re trying to work with Safford and Thatcher now to do a revenue-sharing program. Like I’ve told the mayors there, ‘Where do we shop?’ We buy our groceries, we buy our cars, we buy our furniture, we buy our appliances, we go up there for entertainment,” Pima Mayor C.B. Fletcher said during a recent appearance on Voice of the Valley.
“We’re asking them to help share. We’re not asking for a great deal; we’ll let them tell us what they would like to share and . . . I think we’ll get that done.”
In fiscal year 2019, the town had general fund revenues of $2.2 million, with another $489,684 in enterprise and $510,983 in special revenue funds. The town had $1.7 million in budgeted expenditures.
Pima issued more than $3.5 million worth of building permits in the first four months of 2020, and the pouring of a foundation for two buildings to house a metal fabricating company is about to begin.
The full interview with Fletcher can be heard at https://gilavalleycentral.net/podcast-pima-mayor-cb-fletcher/.
