Budget Woes

Now that we are at the midpoint of the fiscal year, many cities are beginning to revisit the revenue projections made last spring. Many cities grossly underestimated the impact the great recession would have on sales tax revenues--they naively believed that we'd already seen the worst of the recession's impact in 09-10.

Here in Manteca, we knew better and waited until late summer to make our budget projections--and knew that huge cuts in employee compensation were needed to make the budget work. The following articles chronicle the tale of two cities (both very sales tax dependent) that decided to avoid the hard choices in the budget and hope for the best.

In Escondido, they now are looking at cutting ten percent out of the remainder of this year's budget--not an easy task. As many as 100 layoffs could be required. Click here for the entire article.

In Santa Rosa, they did cut about 20 percent of their budget going into this year, but now need to cut another $10 million (10 percent) to make it through the year. They've got a list of 98 items that they are looking to cut. Click here for the entire article and a link to the staff report outlining the 98 cuts.

While most of the articles focus on a city's General Fund, in Tracy the solid waste account is now in the red. As most of you know, Manteca reduced compensation for non-General Fund accounts as well since the recession impacts enterprise revenues as well. The article notes:

Kevin Tobeck, the public works director, said the problem his department faces is threefold. Few houses have been built in the past few years, so there has been no construction debris to discard. Tracy is also home to a swarm of empty, foreclosed houses, where no garbage is collected so no bills are sent out, he said.“We went from lots of building to virtually none,” he said.

Click here for the enitre article.