Draft budget lists $100,000 to help revitalize business

By Kara Chalmers

The City Council got its first look at the 2000-2001 and 2001-2002 draft budget on April 25. The draft included a $100,000 allocation for economic development and revitalization in fiscal year 2000-2001. The allocation will increase to $103,000 for the following year. There is no such funding in the city's current budget.

"It's listed as one of the major policy objectives of the council," said interim city manager William Norton of the effort to revitalize business.

According to Norton, two-thirds of the $100,000 would pay for an economic development coordinator who would work with both existing community businesses and prospective businesses that are interested in moving here. "We need someone to really lead the group," Norton said at a meeting of the Saratoga Business Development Council on May 2. The SBDC responded to Norton's news of the $100,000 allocation with applause.

While the City Council has not signed off on the budget yet, Norton said that none of the members opposed the amount or the concept after he presented the draft budget at the April 25 council meeting.

The council identified other objectives that the staff incorporated into the draft budget. They included issuing bonds for the expansion and renovation of the Saratoga Community Library, development of a Heritage Orchard Preservation Plan, improvements and a possible expansion of the whole civic center area, development of Congress Springs Park, trails improvements and improvements to Saratoga-Sunnyvale Road.

City staff will present the budget three times in all. While the April 25 presentation focused on summary data, highlights, changes and assumptions, the May presentations will concentrate on the revenues and expenditures sections of the budget. The council will hold the first of two public hearings on the budget on June 7. At the second hearing on June 21, the council will most likely adopt the budget.

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