Saratoga News

Mayor proposes a panel to tackle city's future budgets

Council thinks it's not necessary

By Sarah Lombardo

Mayor Don Wolfe wants to convene the best and the brightest Saratoga residents to discuss a long-term solution to the city's seeming hand-to-mouth finances. But the idea was met with lukewarm response from other councilmembers, who said that the idea has merit but is premature.

Wolfe made his proposal at the June 17 council meeting, suggesting that 12 residents from various commissions, the arts community, homeowners' associations and the business community form a panel to "examine long-range solutions to avoid a financial crisis for our city and to provide for safety and services necessary to retain the quality of our city."

The suggestion, Wolfe said, was inspired by the city's successful efforts to maintain a balanced budget in the wake of the loss of the utility-users tax in the November 1996 election. Since that $1.4 million loss, the city has had to reduce spending drastically and make cuts in program funding. With the introduction of a balanced 1999-2000 budget earlier this month, city staffers pointed out that the city needs to consider forming some long-range plans if it wants to maintain even the bare-minimum services it currently has. City Manager Larry Perlin even suggested that the council may have to consider increasing the city's $2 million emergency fund, established in 1994, to keep up with inflation.

"We've done a lot of hand-wringing on this issue," Wolfe said. "But hand-wringing is not a policy."

Wolfe recommended that the panel meet at various times from September 1998 until February 1999, at which time, "should the panel recommend, and the council concur, that creative solutions include a ballot measure for revenue enhancement, such a time frame will allow for application for the June 1999 primary election date."

In other words, perhaps the panel would recommend a new tax measure for the '99 ballot.

Wolfe stressed, however, that the panel's purpose would not strictly be to propose a tax.

"Definitely not," he said. "But if that is to be one of the options that the panel and the City Council agree on, timing is important."

But Vice Mayor Jim Shaw expressed concern about what he sees as a somewhat narrow purpose for the panel.

"Revenue enhancement or sources is just one aspect of the budget," he said.

"He's in the ballpark inasmuch as illuminating the fact that we as a council have to do something beyond what we have done for the next year's budget," Shaw said. "But I think it's a little premature."

Councilmember Gillian Moran pointed out that the city's Finance Commission is already working on a five-year plan for the city's budget.

"I lack enthusiasm for the plan. I find it duplicative of what we asked the Finance Commission to already do," she said. "It is the council's responsibility to solve this. I don't think we need to add another layer of government to this."

Wolfe disagreed.

"This would not preclude any of the suggestions of the Finance Commission," he said. "The time to work on this is now."

The idea still has a chance of gaining council approval, however. The council voted to postpone a decision on Wolfe's idea until Councilmember Paul Jacobs, who was absent at the June 17 discussion, could attend. The issue was tentatively scheduled for the council's July 7 meeting in the Senior Adult Care Center on Allendale Avenue.

[ Back to Contents Page | Saratoga News Home Page | Archives ]