It’s hard to fathom after all the moaning by city officials
about impending state budget cuts, but Gilroy City Administrator
Jay Baksa recently took the wraps off a record $129-million city
budget. No layoffs, no major cuts.
It’s hard to fathom after all the moaning by city officials about impending state budget cuts, but Gilroy City Administrator Jay Baksa recently took the wraps off a record $129-million city budget. No layoffs, no major cuts.
If City Council approves it, the budget will take effect July 1, when the city’s fiscal year begins.
Spending has increased 25 percent, which is attributed mostly to large capital expense budget of $55 million – including the planned $25 million police station and $3 million Sunrise Drive Fire Station in the city’s northwest quad area.
Although the police station is dramatically and irresponsibly overpriced, two other items overshadow that ongoing folly on our list of city budget worries.
First, we’re concerned about the city’s increasing dependence on sales tax revenue to finance its operations. Sales tax revenues, as the current recession as dramatically illustrates, are fickle. One look at the Valley Transportation Agency’s financial quagmire makes that crystal clear.
Our city leaders have placed Gilroy in a Catch-22 situation. As costs rise and programs are added – particularly employee costs in the public safety arena – more sales tax dollars are necessary to feed the gorilla. More sales tax dollars mean more big box stores and that’s where our leaders spend their energy.
It’s a game, ultimately, that cannot be won. We have “won” all the home improvement and warehouse stores possible and now we implore the City Council, the city manager and organizations of influence like the Chamber of Commerce to rethink Gilroy’s direction.
It’s time to focus on heart-and-soul matters – rebuilding our city’s downtown core and bringing good jobs to Gilroyans.
That will take discipline and a change in attitude:
• Gilroy’s got it and we don’t need to give the bank away to get employers here.
• Spending at City Hall is spiraling out of control and costs need to be reigned in. The fiscal 2003/2004 budget spends a stunning 80 percent of the General Fund on police and fire operations – 55 percent on the police department. Both are vitally important, of course, but neither should be all consuming.
When times are tough, the first thing consumers and businesses alike do is tighten their belts and our reliance on sales tax dollars is scary.
These are long-term issues that city leaders must study carefully as they consider attracting businesses and allocating Gilroy’s precious resources.
We urge Gilroy citizens to decide how they want their leaders to pay for services and how much of those services should be spent on public safety before they vote this November.
City Council and mayoral candidates should prepare to answer some difficult questions on those issues.
Just where is Gilroy headed and how are we going to get there?
