May 25, 2004

Brutal city budget balancing decisions lie ahead
Final budget due June 30 

By Dave Cortese
Special to the Times 

As I write this, the City Council has just concluded 10 straight days of budget study sessions. Not only is that a lot of time to spend in the council chambers, but it also wasn’t very good news to hear.  

Are we finished? The answer is “No.” Next, Mayor Gonzales will come out with his final budget message and then there will be more hearings. The full council will vote on the Mayor’s directives. The city manager will respond by preparing a final budget that the council will vote on. By law, we must be finished by the end of June. The new fiscal year for the city starts in July.  

Revenue declines
As I said, it has not been a pleasant process thus far. We have been facing a $76 million budget deficit, the worst of its kind in the history of the city. Because this is now the third year of declining revenues, the levels of cuts we are forced to make are also deeper than ever, and the choices are brutally difficult.  

To prevent cuts to our police and fire personnel, we are considering cuts in every other area, some of them deep. For example, city staff has already suggested that we wipe out most of our crime prevention efforts targeted at youth and schools.  

We have been asked to close park restrooms several days a week, postpone park projects, limit the hours in community centers and cut off funding to non-profit groups—many of which do excellent work in the community.  

We have been told that street paving projects will have to be backlogged, fees will have to increase and supervision will decrease in most city service areas. Code enforcement officers will be cut down to unprecedented levels. These are just a few examples of the kind of decisions we are being asked to make. 

Against this backdrop the City Council has been asked to consider adding a small fee to everyone’s phone bill each month to cover the overhead the city has been absorbing for 911 dispatch services.  

The good news is that a fee of a couple of dollars per month will cover the actual cost of 911-dispatch service to fire and police. It would raise about $20 million. The bad news is it is a new fee—and I am sure would be felt by people in these tough times on their phone bills. Let me know what you think of this proposal by e-mailing me at dave.cortese@sanjose.ca.gov or calling 277-5242 at City Hall. 

No help from state government
The state has certainly been no friend of local government lately. Over half of the tax money we used to collect directly for our redevelopment agency’s local investment is now being intercepted and diverted to the state.  
Sale taxes and property taxes are also being manipulated at the state level in order to give them more and us less. Because of this, a group of cities throughout the state has put a measure on the ballot in November 2004 that I hope you will support. It will keep tax money local.  

In fact, the initiative is actually called the “Local Taxpayers and Public Safety Protection Act.” It would require a vote of the people before the state could raid tax dollars from local governments, ending this practice once and for all. For more information, go to the Web site: www.protectlocalservices.com. 

As I said, none of this is good news. We will balance the budget and work hard to try to minimize the impact of cuts in services—and even avoid some of them. 

Nevertheless, the budget will come down hard on city services that all of us have taken for granted on a day-to-day basis until now. Please let me know how I can do a better job of helping to balance the many competing interests before us. It is an honor and privilege to serve you. I hope to here from you.