Economic Woes are Everywhere

Here's an excerpt from a news story I was listenting to on the radio early this morning:

SOCOLOVSKY: I'm feeling pretty bad, says Aranchas Sanchez del Canya, who works as a government researcher. My life plan was clear: a government job that let me spend time with my two kids. I thought I was set for life. Now it looks as though it won't be that way.
Her boss recently told her that her contract would not be renewed. Her husband, a computer specialist, is just barely hanging on after the small IT firm he works for let go of most of its staff over the summer.

SOCOLOVSKY: You just can't plan for the future, Sanchez says. With unemployment now at 18 percent and forecast to rise even further next year, many people who still have jobs feel them slipping away. Unemployment for those under 25 is already nearly 40 percent. With her geology degree, good grades, and the ability to speak several languages, Penelope Torre Alba says her opportunities seemed limitless.

SOCOLOVSKY: It looked like the world was mine for the taking and that I could have any job I wanted, she says. But Torre Alba's employer just gave her a choice between layoff and temp status, which means she can be let go at will.

(Click here for link to full story)

Sounds like a conversation you might overhear today at any restaurant in the Central Valley--not to mention the Bay Area, the west or the balance of the United States.

Actually, the conversation isn't even in the U.S.--it is taking place in Madrid, Spain.

I realize that we can only focus on Manteca's issues, but sometimes it is important to realize that what we are experiencing is a world-wide problem. When this city and just about every other city in the country planned out its budget in 2002, 2003 or 2006, none of us anticipated an economic downturn of this magnitude. Even if we had, there is no way we could have saved enough money to offset the huge drop in revenues that we've experienced the past few years. Ask the City of Tracy, who is quickly going through a $38 million reserve.

It may feel better to claim hindsight, but you can only base your budget on your best knowledge of the current information and past history. This city budgeted according to realistic assumptions for revenues and expenditures. This city used one time revenues for one time expenditures to make sure that the budget didn't grow at an unsustainable rate. Finally, this city put together a compensation package that could withstand what every city thought would be a worse case scenario.

Unfortunately, we are now experiencing an unprecedented drop in revenues that is of a magnitude that no one could have predicted. As noted above, this economic tsunami is worldwide and public and private sector employers in every country are going through these same struggles. It is a lot easier to throw your local leaders under the bus and blame your woes on them, but it isn't realistic and it isn't going to solve our budget deficit.