Although Mayor Doug Emerson referred to the 2008-09 budget as
being balanced, he acknowledged that city officials are working
toward allocating pay raises to the three unions’ workers. He said
council members couldn’t include those numbers in the 2008-09
budget because they
”
haven’t settled on anything
”
in negotiations with unions.
The Hollister budget looks to be balanced for now, but if and when officials reach deals with three city unions, that might change.
Hollister City Council members last week conducted what Mayor Doug Emerson called “uneventful” budget hearings and hashed over numbers for a likely Aug. 4 adoption.
The focus was on the additional $2.8 million expected revenue from Measure T sales tax dollars – the voter-approved 0.5 percent hike took effect April 1 – and spending down on a $1.7 million deficit already in place for the next year.
With leaders set to progress with their first-year plan to spend half of the Measure T dollars on additional general fund services such as hiring new police officers and administrative staff, and considering the $1.7 million deficit, the numbers meant city officials had to find $300,000 in cuts elsewhere. City Manager Clint Quilter worked with department heads and did just that, Emerson said.
Officials kept with their plan to spend $1.4 million this next year on such additions as new police officers, firefighters, maintenance workers and clerical jobs. But Emerson also said council members will “have to reevaluate” the three-year Measure T spending blueprint for potential changes in the following two cycles. The mayor predicted officials “will not be able to restore as many services” as they had planned in 2009-10.
Although Emerson referred to the 2008-09 budget as being balanced, he acknowledged that city officials are working toward allocating pay raises to the three unions’ workers. He said council members couldn’t include those numbers in the 2008-09 budget because they “haven’t settled on anything” in negotiations with unions.
As for the budget as a whole, Emerson called the Measure T revenue estimates “probably more dismal than I had hoped for.” He attributed that partly to first-year flaws, such as some businesses not adjusting the tax rate, but mostly to the poor economy.
“Our sales tax revenue is just down because people aren’t spending money,” Emerson said.
