San Mateo County Times/Aaron Kinney, 5/2/12. "Half Moon Bay: Still quirky, and back from the brink."
 |
| Half Moon Bay downtown |
..."Four
years after a devastating legal judgment and the national recession
brought Half Moon Bay to the brink of insolvency, the city has scrabbled
its way back from the precipice. The economy is picking up. And
despite a radical transformation of local government, the city remains
pretty much the same quirky enclave it's been for the last couple of
generations. It's not bankrupt -- just cash-strapped, not unlike a lot
of other cities.
Half Moon Bay's troubles began in November 2007,
when a federal judge ruled that it owed a developer $37 million for
inadvertently creating wetlands on his property, scuttling his chance to
develop it. The city ultimately reached an $18 million settlement and
issued bonds to pay for it. The small town with the tiny budget is now on the hook for about $1.1 million a year through 2040." Read Article.
Half Moon Bay, Budget-in-Brief, 2011-12. General Fund total: $10,039, 676. Operating expenditures of $9,970,325 and capital project and reserve of $1,197,000.
Posted by Kathy Meeh
Posted by Kathy Meeh
7 comments:
Amazing that HMB has a reserve of over $1 million.
How much does Pacifica have?
An elusive, and disappearing question.
about $200,000 if you count funny
That is so crazy. We are one emergency away from insolvency/bankruptcy, whatever.
And the Trib reported that the council's going to spend more of the pittance left instead of dealing with the payroll/pension problem that constitutes the vast majority of expenditures.
I hope some people run for council this year who are willing to challenge staff and their nutty ideas.
Don't worry Lionel if they don't change course soon we will be unsolvent and all the union contract will be out the window.
Why isn't the Trib reporting on this crisis? I just let my subscription expire. I won't be renewing.
All we can do is vote for three new ones, but the problems will remain. They're too big and too old for any dramatic fix. This is going to get worse before it gets better, if it gets better. And we can't even get the hard decisions made. What's the rush? We're always broke. Let's wait til after the election.
Let's hope home values begin to go up and the money faucet gets turned on again. Watch homeowners bail.
The difference between Pacifica and HMB? Pacifica only talks about being "visitor-serving." HMB actually accomplishes it.
I do give HMB credit for the way it's recovered from the hippie-induced, Chop Keenan fiasco. It often takes a crisis to get people to focus attention on solving problems.
Hard to believe, but perhaps we're not in crisis mode yet because no one is dealing with our problems. And our problems will only continue to grow. What will it take to wake us up? Defeat of a tax measure in November? Don't bet on it.
Post a Comment