Mesa City Council recently pitched cost-cutting and revenue ideas for Parks and Recreation in an effort to ward off any big impact on its programming as Mesa again will do another 2% across-the-board spending reduction for 2026-27.

But before that happened, staff gave council members a detailed look into the department’s financial constraints in hopes Council will be more willing to approve proposed fee increases.

Council in previous discussions on this year’s budget pushed back on recommendations – such as charging fees for affiliated youth sports groups, reducing daily public swim hours and continuing financial support for the Mesa Pow Wow event.

Had the city gone through with those and others that council rejected, it would have saved $2 million, according to department Director Andr

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