Budget cuts are always painful, and while the supervisors have
done a commendable job, the county really has not solved the
problem
Santa Clara County has resolved its budget crisis for this fiscal year, and we can all breathe a sigh of relief that some of the most drastic cuts were not as severe as county supervisors originally predicted.
In addition, officials protected the county’s reserve intended to fund emergency services in the case of a natural or man-made disaster.
Our relief comes with a significant “however” attached.
The last-minute discovery of $9 million in found revenue gives the public pause as to the integrity of the process. It breeds distrust and gives the sense that this is a game of chicken between taxpayers and officials: Who is going to blink first?
And the next time the county faces a budget crisis – say, this time next year, when the county will likely have to close another deficit in excess of $100 million – taxpayers will have ample reason to doubt officials’ “the sky is falling” predictions.
That said, budget cuts are arduous, and County Executive Pete Kutras and supervisors have done a yeoman’s job combing through all departments to make the necessary cuts.
Still, the process left out a key element that should be considered next time. No effort was made to cut costs by seeking concessions from county employees on salaries, generous benefits, liberal holiday and vacation plans and pension packages that exceed those enjoyed by the vast majority of taxpayers – the folks who foot the bills. Supervisors should work at keeping services in place and trimming benefits.
Also, we’d have liked to have seen a focus on improving efficiency at the county and installing some sort of merit-based system for awarding pay increases.
But most of all, we’re missing the “come to Jesus” moment from supervisors regarding their failed effort to convince voters to approve a half-cent sales tax boost. District One County Supervisor Don Gage loudly decried the vote that rejected the measure which was unofficially tied to the BART boondoggle.
“The voters vote, and what they say – fine. Then they’re going to have to deal with what the county is going to have to do to balance the budget. There’s going to be a lot of stuff that’s going to have to disappear,” Gage said last year after the sales tax measure was rejected by
voters.
We’d like to hear some equally vociferous (and sincere) mea culpas from supervisors acknowledging that they were wrong to ask for a half-cent sales tax increase instead of the justifiable quarter-cent increase, wrong to muddy the waters with a backroom BART-to-San Jose deal and wrong to gamble the county’s fiscal future with that measure.
For now, this budget mess is behind us and it’s a relief that, though many services were reduced, most were not eliminated. But the endemic problem has not been solved. What of next year?
