November 29, 2007
Where Have All the Good Budget Times Gone?
Remember that budget surplus? Remember when we were flush with cash and we decided to go on this spending binge and Chris Daly got into a fight with everyone because he wanted to spend the money his way and not everyone else's way? Well goodbye to all that because Gavin announced that we know have a whopping $229 million dollar deficit.
It's kinda like on the "the Wire" when the outgoing Mayor decided to get revenge on the guy who beat him in the Mayoral Race by not telling anyone that the educational system was majorly in debt. So maybe Gavin didn't tell anyone beforehand so he can stick it to the guy who replaced him. Oh wait, Gavin won. So maybe Gavin didn't announce it for fear if he told everyone before the election he might have lost to Grasshopper.
The reason for the debt is that we allegedly hired too many new people, mainly cops and nurses plus gave them all whopping raises. Then there's the fact that a large part of the revenue came from property transfer taxes and with the housing marketing in a mess, there goes that money.
So Gavin has announced that he wants hiring freezes and wants each department head whose funds come from the city's general fund to come up with a proposal to trim some fat by 13%. Letting go of people is not an option in that all those people who were hired were kind of necessary, or at least it looks really, really bad if you let go a bunch of nurses and cops.
The good news: we've faced deficits before and we beat them before and we can beat them again. The bad news: what with all those ballot initiatives locking in money to certain city services, there's not a lot of fat out there to trim.
|
Tax the homeless! Make them rent their begging pitches like any other bisuness. And ask Daly to take a pay cut
At least Nate Ford got his big raise for fixing MUNI before the city ran out of money.
its about to get a lot worse. the housing thing will not skip our fair city. folks that don't lose their homes will be appealing their assessed values for anything they bought in the last few years. we should be factoring in 10-15% short falls in property taxes on top of the increased spending of the propositions du jour our stupidvisors never analyze before submitting.
The sooner the City increases the hurdle for vesting retiree healthcare benefits beyond the current 5 years (to maybe 20 years - is that too much to ask for lifetime medical insurance on the taxpayers' dimes?), the better off the budget will be. Also, they need to freeze the defined contribution ... the retirees can pay the difference (give them some incentive to support universal healthcare at a federal level).
Then there's all the b.s. programs and employees created from all the idiotic laws the Supervisors pass without looking past their nose on the need, costs, and effects of such legislation.
It will only change when folks get involved and manage their elected officials better.
Hey - Why don't we charge a bunch for those new city id cards - a new revenue opportunity!
Hey - Why don't we charge a bunch for those new city id cards - a new revenue opportunity!
Surplus vs. deficit is all in how you count the numbers, which are as malleable as any statistic. Gavin's just saying "OK, I'm back. Don't expect anything unless you make a personal deal with me."
It's similar to how he cut spending by laying off all those DPW workers at the beginning of his term, then once the layoffs produced their predictably shitty streets he poured money into street-fixing. Just in time for the election, natch.
He's just being a hog.
better yet, we could increase the taxes on late night pizza restaurants in North Beach.
Tax double posters
Tax people that put Kinks songs in my head