Brentwood Press - Index

Brentwood Press - AntiochPress_07.18.08 - Index

4A | THEPRESS.NET COMMUNITY JULY 18, 2008
Deficit spending continues in city budget
Reserve
fund drops,
no more
police hired
by Dave Roberts
Staff Writer
Despite Antioch having suffered a 31percent
increase in violent crime in 2007 – the
largest increase of any large city in California
– no police offi cers are planned to be hired in
the next two years.
On the plus side, the recently adopted
two-year city budget does include hiring a
part-time deputy district attorney who will
work with the police to provide more effi
cient prosecution of criminals. Not hiring
more police offi cers is a result of the city
government’s tight fi scal situation due to the
slowdown in the economy. As a result, for
the next two years the city will continue a
pattern of defi cit spending just to keep existing
services intact.
The city’s General Fund, which provides
for daily government operations, spent
about $3 million more than it took in last
year. Offi cials plan to spend more than a $1
million from that fund than it takes in this
Dale Giessman, D. C.
year, and spend nearly $2 million more than
it takes in next year.
The result is that the city’s emergency
reserve fund is being steadily drawn down
from a healthy 19 percent a year ago to 15
percent in the coming year and then down
to 10 percent two years from now.
Ten percent is the minimum reserve
balance allowed under city policy. There’s a
possibility it will drop below the 10 percent
threshold if the assumption that $1.5 million
in budget savings will be found in each of the
next two years does not hold true.
Due to the fi scal constraints, it’s pretty
much a steady-as-she-goes budget with no
major funding initiatives in the next two
years. The economic slowdown is expected
to reduce the amount of property and sales
taxes that were coming into city coffers during
the boom years – while city expenses,
particularly for salaries, continue to rise.
At the June 24 City Council meeting in
which the 2008-10 budget was unanimously
approved – spending about $46 million per
year from the General Fund – council members
praised city staff for the hard work that
went into it.
But Councilman Arne Simonsen expressed
concerns that some of the budget expectations
are unrealistic, possibly resulting
in more signifi cant defi cit spending. One of
those is the assumption that property taxes
will increase 4 percent in the coming year.
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Antioch General Fund budget
Dollars
50
40
30
20
$43.5M
$48.2M
$8.2M
(18.7%)
were averaging a median home price of
$535,000, and the median price now is more
like $300,000,” said Simonsen. “That means
there’s going to be a great number of people
applying for a reduction (in their property
tax).”
His concerns were borne out when the
county tax assessor a couple weeks later informed
city offi cials that Antioch’s property
tax revenue will be $1 million less than previously
projected.
“The city will be coming up with options
on how to address the reduction,”
stated Finance Director Dawn Merchant
via e-mail this week. “We will be returning
to the council in September … with our fi -
nal numbers from fi scal year 2007-08 and we
will be discussing plans for further revisions,
taking into account this reduction indicated
from the assessor.”
At the June 24 council meeting, Simon-
$46.5M $49.2M
$6.8M
(14.6%)
$46.0M $49.4M
10
$4.7M
(10.2%)
0
2007-2008 2008-2009
Revenues Expenditures Reserves
2009-2010
Source: City of Antioch John Carter/Press Graphic
sen also questioned where the annual $1.5
million in budget savings is expected to come
from. Merchant responded that approximately
that much has been saved annually in
recent years due to unfi lled vacancies in city
positions, revenues coming in higher than
expected and carrying unspent money forward
from the previous year.
In addition, Simonsen asked about the
status of the proposal to privatize the city’s
landscape maintenance, which would save
the city about $500,000 per year. Since last
fall, city managers have been meeting with
city employee union representatives to discuss
the job transfers that would result from
engaging an outside contractor for maintenance.
“I hope to bring something for a fi nal
decision in July or August, in which case we
see Budget page 15A