The new fiscal year is just three weeks away, and the Santa Cruz City Council is still trying to figure out how it will close a budget gap that could grow to $3.7 million. Negotiations with the police union and the SEIU are not getting the results that city leaders had hoped for and talks are now underway to consider increasing the sales tax or the utility user tax.
The proposed budget for 2011 projects $77.3 million in expenses and $75.3 million in revenues, leaving a $2 million deficit. The city had hoped to cover this by cutting police expenses by $400,000 through union concessions and cutting city workers’ costs with an additional $1.3 million in concessions from the SEIU. The rest of the deficit could be covered by drawing from the city’s $75 million reserves.
The SEIU argues that their workers are the lowest paid in the city, and they already have accepted furloughs and a delay in their cost-of-living salary increases. The police say that they have been understaffed by 17 percent this year, but with the increase in gang activity and other violent calls, they have received record numbers of calls for service. City Council has already agreed to increase the SCPD budget by $1 million to pay for eight new officers. Read more at the Santa Cruz Sentinel.
