By KATHRYN MOREA
I believe Measure N will pass. However, let’s say it does not. I would find other expenses which could be cut or streamlined. Perhaps the construction and development projects being done by City Hall need to be reduced or postponed.
For instance, a library remodel approved for $25 million mutated into a new building which cost taxpayers $75 million, three times more than what was budgeted and approved.
Each year our city spends around $5 million to fund various homeless programs. Maybe we need to find ways to partner so the taxpayers are not shouldering so much of this burden. I believe if forced to choose, our children must come first.
A similar large item pay-out has been for “affordable housing.” Only a few months ago, $10.8 million was approved for two different projects of 41 and 44 units respectively. Not only are these extremely expensive projects to build, they often result in hundreds of new families moving into Santa Monica, further crowding our schools, roads and other parts of an overburdened infrastructure.
Furthermore, our City Hall staff has doubled in just 10 years, yet our population has remained fairly constant.
So I believe there are plenty of places in CARDIO, STRENGTH & FLEXIBILITY TRAINING the budget where cutbacks could be made if there is a priority placed on finding solutions instead of merely raising taxes.
I believe Proposition N will pass. Voters know it raises Santa Monica’s hotel bed tax to the same rate as Los Angeles and Beverly Hills. Voters also know that Proposition N was put on the ballot to ensure that the city lives up to its agreement to give the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District $6 million a year.
Even if Proposition N does not pass, the city must fund the agreement. Our public schools need as much support as we can give them, and each one of our children deserves an excellent education.
To find $3 million, the first place I’d look in the budget would be the funds allocated for code enforcement. I am confident that we all could live with flags stuck on cars for sale around the Fourth of July, as well as many of the other minor transgressions the city spent millions last year to police. I would ask the City Manager to have department heads reduce or eliminate their staffs’ overtime hours. Savings may be possible in what is currently budgeted for outside consultants.
If we still need money for our schools, rather than laying off people, I would recommend delaying one or more capital improvement projects.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on October 19, 2004. Read the original PDF.