Time to stop kicking the budget can down the road

 Pacifica Tribune/Letters-to-the-Editor, 4/17/12  "Budget discussion lacks facts." by Sharon Ferguson

"Editor: I watched last Wednesday's City Council budget meeting and I am less than thrilled with what I saw and heard. This city spends real money, despite what some on council may think. Pacifica has a budget that has been historically consistent at around $25 million a year and provides many vital services. Our budget funds increasingly important programs such as the Resource Center. Many times, this is the last place people with nowhere to turn seek out. However, our budget discussion seemed to go in circles.

Mayor DeJarnatt made this observation from the dais: "we have had a structural deficit since 1996."  Well, Mayor DeJarnatt, you were on council for all these 16 years of structural deficit spending. How could you have let this continue for so long: spending money council did not have? You have had plenty of time to find a solution over these 16 years on council. Where has your focus been? One could surmise that you have been ignoring the problems. Kicking them down the road. For 16 years!

At no time last Wednesday night did anyone talk about final budget figures incorporating possible contracting with the sheriff for police services. No one has seen what the taxpayers will save by contracting the police to the sheriff . No details about the expected savings (thought to be around $1.5 million per year) or the staffing. Will it make sense or won't it?

End the guessing game. Stop guessing about the budget; stop focusing on a temporary tax as the easy way out without all the figures in front of you. I don't run my household budget by guessing or ignoring big expenditures that may be accomplished more inexpensively.

Let's also focus on a sustainable Pacifica economy so we don't do this high wire act every year. Stop complaining about the cards you're dealt and start on a plan to improve the economy so we have stable revenue. We can't continue to operate without reserves. We are one major problem from a total melt down.

Mayor DeJarnatt, let's focus. Your lack of financial understanding has left this town with such a wobbly budget and thin economy that low-income patrons of the Resource Center and kids using the library are threatened with loss of services. Will the remaining eight months show some turn-around, or are we again kicking the budget down the road for a 17th year?"


Posted by Kathy Meeh