By Sarah Lombardo
With the city's budget already approved and the utility-users tax on the November ballot, Saratoga Finance Advisory Committee members faced some tough issues at their meeting July 30.
In a follow-up to a July 23 City Council meeting, the committee struggled to find ways to adequately explain the tax to voters and to come up with alternative budget suggestions for the City Council should the tax fail.
At issue were services funded by the tax and which services could--or should--be affected if the voters reject the tax and the city suddenly finds itself with less money coming in than planned.
"If you alter the budget, you're going to alter services," FAC member Richard Van Hoesen said. But which services will be altered isn't yet known, he said.
The utility-users tax was enacted in 1985 by the City Council. It taxes residents based on the amount of their Pacific Gas and Electric bills, which amounts to residents paying on average $6 a month toward the tax. Because the utility-users tax is a general tax, the money it generated was mingled with other funds. Though tracking where specific funds have come from and been used is difficult with general fund money, a good portion of the utility-users tax money was used for street maintenance, such as pothole repair, median-strip tree trimming and congestion control, committee members said.
Finance Director Thomas Fil reported that if the utility-users tax fails, the city could face a $1.4 million loss in revenue.
Committee members agreed that defining for the voters how the funds worked would be an important part of the wording of the argument in favor of the tax on the ballot.
Committee co-chairman Jim Ousley said average residents are going to want to know just what they get for their money, and many people may feel that paying their property tax should be enough.
"The utility-users tax is just as important to the community as the property tax," he said. "Very few people realize how little property tax comes back to the city."
FAC member Richard Van Hoesen said, "We don't want to seem like we're being alarmists."
But committee co-chairwoman Charlene Low said the city will have to be prepared to make some serious choices if the tax fails.
According to Low, when the city balanced the budget in 1995, city officials prioritized the services provided to residents, listing those that were basic and optional. Basic services included: public safety, infrastructure management, waste management, planning and zoning and permits, and inspections. Optional services were recreational programs, senior assistance, youth programs, community events, cable television and library services.
Low said they may have to take another look at that table again and try to determine where to make cuts if the utility-users tax fails in November. "It's going to hurt," she said.
The committee meets Aug. 19 to continue deliberations on budget cuts.
This article appeared in the Saratoga News, August 7, 1996.
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