Impact of Proposed State Budget

As many of you know, the state has been acting without a budget since July 1st, 2009 and has just recently developed a tentative budget agreement between the Governor and the party leaders of the State Assembly and the State Senate. I want to update the citizens of Coronado on the potential impacts of this tentative agreement, if enacted by the legislature and signed by the Governor. 1. The proposed plan will “borrow” $1.65 million from the City of Coronado and will require the State to repay this loan in three years. None of San Diego County’s mayors are optimistic about being repaid if this “loan” trigger is pulled. More than likely, the state will find a way to fail to repay this loan back to her cities. 2. The state will keep $450,000 in gas tax revenues that it is required by law to advance on to the City of Coronado. 3. The City of Coronado’s Redevelopment Agency will have an estimated $5 million hit from this proposal. This means the City of Coronado will likely have to loan its redevelopment agency $5 million to cover the redevelopment agency’s obligations under the state’s current proposed budget. This means that the state’s proposed budget “solution” will take away an estimated $7 million from the City of Coronado! To put this figure in perspective, I provide you the following information about the city’s payroll costs: -The City of Coronado spent approximately 24 million dollars on all of its employees last fiscal year. -Of this 24 million dollars, the City of Coronado spent 7.9 million dollars on Police Department salaries. -Of this 24 million dollars, the City of Coronado spent 4.8 million dollars on Fire and Lifeguard salaries. -The City spends a little over half of all its payroll dollars on public safety employees. The 7 million dollars that the State of California will be STEALING from the City of Coronado to “BALANCE” its budget could basically double the number of police officers on our city streets or could have an even bigger impact on our fire department. Where will this money being going instead? Into the black hole managed by our State Legislators and our Governor. What can you do? Call or write your legislators (Mary Salas and Denise Ducheny) or your Governor and tell them to balance their books without robbing your city!!!