[ad_1]
Voters living in the City of Orange may decide in November whether or not they want to pay more sales tax in an effort to keep the city’s budget from cratering.
It comes as city officials stare down the barrel of a $19 million deficit.
On Tuesday, City Council members slashed roughly $4 million in spending from its upcoming budget for the fiscal year 2024-2025 through a series of hiring freezes on the fire department and city hall – along with cutting certain events and services, like steam cleaning the downtown sidewalks.
One high-profile cut includes removing city funding of crossing guard programs in the police department.
A majority of council members refused to put a hiring freeze on police, the city’s most expensive department that takes up 41% of the current $140 million budget.
After a series of proposed new revenue streams and budget cuts, city staff said there’s still at least an $8 million budget gap.
“We couldn’t get there. So the only way we’re going to get there is to pass some kind of a sales tax measure,” Mayor Dan Slater said during Tuesday’s meeting.
In a Wednesday phone interview, Assistant City Manager Susan Galvan said the initial projection of a $19 million deficit also assumes ending fiscal year 2024 with a $2 million gap.
But, Galvan said, that number could change.
“We added about $4.5 million in revenue and then we are going to incorporate reductions of about $4 million … then our deficit is going down to $8.7 million, roughly,” she said. “Depending on how we end fiscal year 24, that number could change.”
She also said officials will continue combing the budget to look for any more additional cuts that could be made.
“We know that it’s going to be a moving target,” Galvan said. “It’s going to continue to be worked upon even after July 1 when we adopt it.”
A Looming Sales Tax Measure
“We can cut and cut and cut and it’s never going to make up the problem. I don’t think any of us even want to do a tax increase, even if it’s just a penny and that’s what it is – just a penny,” Councilwoman Kathy Tavoularis said of the 1% sales tax increase proposal during Tuesday’s meeting.
On Tuesday, a majority of city council members voted to have staff draft up a sales tax increase of .75% and 1% for voters. Each comes with a sunset clause of 10, 15 or 20 years.
The increased amount and sunset clause all depends on which of the six proposals council members decide to ask voters this upcoming November election.
City council members are expected to consider the sales tax increase measure at their June 25 meeting.
Councilman John Gyllenhammer, who unsuccessfully pushed for more budget cuts through larger hiring freezes earlier in the meeting, said city officials need to show spending restraint before asking voters to increase taxes on themselves.
“I think we need to show some discipline to the budget,” Gyllenhammer said. “We need to make certain tough decisions that show a healthy understanding or healthy respect in line with our money.”
Councilwoman Arianna Barrios, echoing some residents’ calls for an audit, said there should be a public accounting on how the city landed itself in a $19 million deficit.
“The whole picture wasn’t laid bare, it wasn’t transparent on how close to the line we were year after year after year,” Barrios said. “We need to know how we got there.”
“I want to be really clear that Orange has always been a fiscally conservative city. We have not gone crazy, we are not Santa Ana – we have not done really nutty things,” she said.
Her colleague, Councilwoman Ana Gutierrez, agreed on an audit.
“The public needs to know and they need to know how we got here and more importantly that we’re not going to continue down this same path,” Gutierrez said Tuesday night.
Councilman John Dumitru said “shell games” were played in previous budgets to mask an ongoing deficit stretching back to 2009.
“Any vote asking for a tax increase is slitting your throat politically, that’s not lost on me,” Dumitru said. “However we do have an obligation … that obligation is not lost on me.”
He, along with his colleagues, called for strict oversight of the sales tax increase if voters adopt it in November.
“We have to ensure that to the public we’re not going to spend like drunken sailors. That’s not the goal here. The goal is to get some breathing room,” Dumitru said.
Budget Cuts
Earlier in Tuesday’s public meeting, council members grappled with a series of proposed budget cuts.
They cut the police department’s $425,000 crossing guard program and urged Orange Unified School District to step in.
“I have had a child die in a crosswalk and I have had to deal with that reality down in South County and I just can’t let this fall through the cracks,” said Councilman Denis Bilodeau, referencing his engineering job with the county. “I can’t support potentially letting this fall through the cracks.”
He, along with Gutierrez voted against the crossing guard cut.
But a majority city council member refused to cut police spending through a five-person hiring freeze on sworn officers.
“I will not support a hiring freeze of the police department. I think our foremost job is to keep our city, our residents and our businesses safe,” Slater said Tuesday night.
Slater said the police department needs 170 sworn officers and was staunchly against capping the number at 165.
“If we don’t keep the original number and we reduce it to 165, we’re going to have fewer police officers, potentially – and that’s all I need to say about it,” he said.
Police Chief Dan Adams said the hiring freeze wouldn’t impact the city’s current level of police service.
City Manager Tom Kisela told council members that police positions are among the most expensive in the city.
“You have to realize we can cut 40 people that make $5 an hour and we’re keeping people that make $25 an hour – the math isn’t going to work out,” Kisela said.
City Council members voted 5-2 to strike the proposed police hiring freeze, with Barrios and Gyllenhammer voting no.
Officials also approved an 11-person hiring freeze on city hall, along with a five-person hiring freeze on the fire department.
“I was here during the Great Recession and we had over 100 vacancies and the city kept going along. So I would support holding 20 vacancies,” Bilodeau suggested.
A majority of his colleagues voted against the move, instead keeping the 11-person hiring freeze suggested by Kisela.
“I’m confident we’re going to have more than 11 vacancies,” Kisela said. “I think our problem will not be a vacancy rate, it’ll be a hiring rate.”
Barrios criticized how the cuts were handled because the police department was exempt from citywide hiring freezes.
“I just think it’s highly irregular and unfair for us to single out one department over the other in terms of protecting the health and safety of our residents,” she said. “I think it’s just really awful to ask one department to give more than the other.”
Spencer Custodio is the civic editor. You can reach him at scustodio@voiceofoc.org. Follow him on Twitter @SpencerCustodio.
•••
Can you support Voice of OC with a donation?
You obviously care about local news and value good journalism here in Orange County. With your support, we can bring you more stories like these.
Related
[ad_2]
Source link
