albuquerque has seen a recent spike in consumer spending.... and that's good news for the city's budget. but to keep chipping away at its deficit-- the mayor is looking to change how new mexicans decide where to spend their cash. jeff maher is live in the newsroom with how the mayor is trying to keep a good thing going.. jeff? people are spending more--- and the city hopes to keep that money rolling in--- with the help of a new campaign that highlights this website-- where you can find anything from restaurants-- to shoes-- and all of its local. jessie corbett and madison warren plan on spending about twenty- dollars each tonight for a saint patty's day dinner. for warren, she's got good reason to feel comfortable spending again. "i just got my first job right out of graduate school, so, hopefully that's a sign of the times that people are able to get more jobs now" "i think because it's warm and nice people are getting out, and spending money on eating out and maybe going shopping in the nob hill area" with a 40-million dollar shortfall to solve, mayor richard berry is counting on consumer spending to up. february saw a spike in spending. the last time that happened was last july. "we're not even close to being out of the woods, but at least it eases things up a bit going into this budget cycle" the mayor says it's still too early to disclose exactly what he's looking at cutting, but he did say the latest increase in consumer spending could help ease the pain. over the next couple of weeks, the city is launching a new website -- thrive- abq-dot-com, to encourage shoppers to buy local. "so if somebody in albuquerque chooses to buy locally, they can go on thrive-abq-dot-com, search for whether it's a restaurant to eat, or clothes, or shoes, or building supplies, and they can find a list of local vendors" "we try to always support local food restaurants because we just want them to stay around." the mayor is also waiting to see what governor martinez does with the budget bill. he says it has some provisions that would add some extra costs to municipalities. live in the newsroom. jeff maher. kob. eyewitness news 4. some
