I sent my in-house economic analyst to City Hall Tuesday
afternoon, to see if he could sort out the city’s budget woes in
his spare time.
I sent my in-house economic analyst to City Hall Tuesday afternoon, to see if he could sort out the city’s budget woes in his spare time. He found the information easily: A small waiting area is furnished with chairs, a table, and a bookshelf, on the top shelf of which reposes the 2002-2003 budget for the City of Gilroy.
We were curious because the top story in The Dispatch two days in a row was City Council’s response to the Davis budget. Council bemoans the fact that the state will give Gilroy $1 million less than we had anticipated, and another $2.4 million less come July.
Council cancelled their regularly scheduled meeting to go complain about the shortfall to our state legislators. Our mayor, Tom Springer, is quoted as saying, “This is literally fighting the fire that‚s coming
into your backyard.” Our City Administrator, Jay Baksa, is quoted as saying, “There aren‚t more rabbits to pull out (of the hat.)”
Oh, baloney.
At the risk of stating the obvious, we are suffering an economic recession right now, in California, and especially in Silicon Valley. Lots of people are out of work; more are underemployed; companies are having a hard time selling their wares; some are facing bankruptcy. Hence tax revenues are down. The state, the county, and the city all need to cut back.
Actually, the only part of the Davis budget cuts that alarmed me was the “tax the rich” provision. Not because we qualify as rich; oh, my no; I wish we did. But corporations are taxed as individuals, so all corporations that make more than $133,000 will be taxed at 10 percent.
Corporations are already fleeing the high taxes and burdensome regulations and ridiculous energy costs of California, thanks in large part to Davis‚s policies. This provision will only exacerbate the trend. But nobody likes the rich, and in California, nobody likes business, and in a democracy, we get the government we deserve right quickly. But I digress.
In reference to the City of Gilroy‚s budget, let me quote Bullwinkle, “Watch me pull a rabbit out of this hat.”
The city budget is $122,480,097. Let’s set aside police and fire expenditures: $14,575,007 and $7,138,583 respectively. We’ll consider them sacrosanct, inviolable, untouchable.
That leaves $5,711,867 in Administration, $3,426,320 in Community Services, $3,497,816 in Community Development. Tot those up and take away a million: hey, that‚s a 8 percent cut. Not nearly as bad as the 20 percent cut my husband’s company had to make last July.
Or, take it out of Special Revenue, whatever that is: $7,296,201. It won’t be quite so special any more, but hard times demand sacrifices.
Or take it out of Capital Projects. We were going to spend $9,443,057 on parks, $8,804,447 on traffic, $13,201,381 on library expansion, $833,000 on downtown streetscape, and $12,803,795 on our lovely new police station with the underground parking and the full-scale track. If we are in an economic downturn, we need to re-evaluate whether we have money to spend on making more, bigger, and more beautiful city facilities.
There’s nothing to be done about the $1,882,403 in debt service, except be grateful that it’s not bigger. Thanks, Jay, for not floating more bonds.
There’s $15,607,660 in a rather oddly assorted category called cars, computers, and benefits. We could buy fewer cars and computers, make the old ones do for another year, as the private sector does. When my husband’s company had to make cuts last year, they changed our medical package; we have a $50 co-payment now instead of a $15. Look into stuff like that.
Sewer and water we won’t have to touch, but what about that half a million for the golf course?
None of the above even addresses the $49 million that the city has squirreled away in reserve funds: $21,856,435 in general reserve, $16.5 million for police impact, and lesser amounts, $1 million to $3.7 million each, for sidewalk, gas taxes, traffic, sewer, fire impact, public facilities impact, fleet, and equipment.
Reserves for a city, like savings for a family, are nice. But they exist for a rainy day. Break out the umbrellas, folks. And quit whining. One percent, even 3.5 percent, is nothing. Count Gilroy lucky.
Cynthia Anne Walker is a homeschooling mother of three and a former engineer. She is a published independent author. Her column is published in The Dispatch every Friday.
