Posts
So if you were trying to get, say, a politically unpalatable tax passed, and no one wanted to help, what would you do? How about scaring the crap out of the people most likely to vote?
Just in time for Election Day, the council decided to put on its own version of “Apocalypse Now” Tuesday night, offering an accounting of the drastic service cuts that could happen next year … if the city can’t somehow generate some additional revenue (P’hint, P’hint).
City Manager Debra Kurita offered a list of cuts that could be made to meet an anticipated $3 million to $5 million budget shortfall for next year, including cuts to police and fire service and, possibly, the closure of Mastick Senior Center – suggestions which drew an overflow crowd of firefighters, and also seniors who waited for more than two hours in what are some seriously uncomfortable seats for the opportunity to beg the council to keep Mastick open.
And how to save the senior center?
“I’m sure you’ve heard we have to make cuts. We’ll have to make less if Measure P passes,” Mayor Beverly Johnson, whose comments were echoed by other council members, told one speaker.
The city’s budget problems are serious and real. This year, it looks like we're already $700,000 in the hole, and that’s not counting the $1.1 million the state Board of Equalization says we owe Livermore in mislaid sales taxes. Add declining sales tax revenues, declining property tax assessments and God knows what else, and you’ve got a whole lot of ugly, for several years to come.
Council member Marie Gilmore said those problems are not going to be fixed without finding more money, somewhere. But council members also offered other, less apocalyptic-sounding but longer-term solutions.
Council member Frank Matarrese has talked for the last few meetings about structural changes like “flattening” city departments, collapsing departments under fewer managers. Council member Doug deHaan, who called the proposed cuts “shock and awe,” said he wants an examination of all city staffing.
Tuesday's discussion was info-only; city staff isn't slated to give the council a list of mid-year cuts until February of 2009. A proposed budget for next year isn’t due until May.
Regardless of what happens, the council made it clear that the city’s budget problems will continue well past November 4. We'll continue to fill you in even after the electoral politics pass.
The Alameda Unified School District’s finance chief laid out the impacts of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s budget proposal for next year, and they are grim. Under the proposal, the district could lose more than $4 million in state funding for the current year and 2009-2010. And that’s not counting the $650,000 it will lose when the new Nea Community Learning Center charter school opens next year, taking an anticipated 250 students off the district’s rolls.
If the governor’s plan were to be enacted, the district could face layoffs and even the loss of five days of the school year, district chief financial officer Tim Rahill said, though it could allow the district to take money out of “categorical” programs – money that is designated for specific programs that can’t be used for any other purpose.
Declining enrollment and increasing costs – Rahill said worker’s compensation costs, for example, will probably rise – will also impact the district’s budget.
“Alameda is facing a state budget crisis. We are facing the opening of a charter school. Also, we’re experiencing declining enrollment,” Rahill said.
He said parcel tax dollars generated by the passage of Measure H could also be used to help cover the cuts, if the board wishes to use those. This year, the district is slated to get $4 million in Measure H tax funds, and it has only budgeted $1.2 million of that.
Schwarzenegger has proposed a number of additional taxes to bridge $31.3 billion in budget shortfalls between the 2007-08 and 2009-10 fiscal years.
The district wants your input on its budget situation. They’ve scheduled budget workshops for February 11 and April 2. We’ll update you when times and locations are available.
If the governor’s plan were to be enacted, the district could face layoffs and even the loss of five days of the school year, district chief financial officer Tim Rahill said, though it could allow the district to take money out of “categorical” programs – money that is designated for specific programs that can’t be used for any other purpose.
Declining enrollment and increasing costs – Rahill said worker’s compensation costs, for example, will probably rise – will also impact the district’s budget.
“Alameda is facing a state budget crisis. We are facing the opening of a charter school. Also, we’re experiencing declining enrollment,” Rahill said.
He said parcel tax dollars generated by the passage of Measure H could also be used to help cover the cuts, if the board wishes to use those. This year, the district is slated to get $4 million in Measure H tax funds, and it has only budgeted $1.2 million of that.
Schwarzenegger has proposed a number of additional taxes to bridge $31.3 billion in budget shortfalls between the 2007-08 and 2009-10 fiscal years.
The district wants your input on its budget situation. They’ve scheduled budget workshops for February 11 and April 2. We’ll update you when times and locations are available.
posted by Michele Ellson at 9:00 AM on Jan 28, 2009
2 Comments:
If it wasn't so serious, I'd say it was comical how Anne Marie Gallant and Teresa Highsmith danced around the issue of the $5 million of un-funded workman's compensation liabilities. (This was during item 3A of the joint ARRA/CIC/City Council meeting.)
The Mayor and Frank Matarrese tried for five to ten minutes to pin both of them down to admit that if the law says - as Highsmith asserted - that we have to recognize the workman's comp liability on our books, and we have to provide funding for it somewhere, then it effectively reduces our general fund balance by $5 million, because on our books, it's listed as a liability on the general fund balance sheet, and there is no special reserve fund anywhere to cover it.
I don't know why they wouldn't just admit that it's a $5 million un-funded liability.
I think it is pretty appalling that the city is not willing to consider alternative sources of revenue such as raising the utility tax, they could of chosen several smaller taxes and asked everybody in the city to step up to pay for these services. The Mayor and Marie Gilmore seem to be adamant that the insane employee benefit packages can't be touched. They need to realize that you can't offer lifetime health care to somebody and their family after five years on the job (fire-department) They should take the tack that if the fire department wants more positions they need to give back some of the over the top benefits.
Post a Comment