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# Santa Monica Living wage dilemma offers opportunity
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/santa-monica-living-wage-dilemma-offers-opportunity-editor/
- Published: 2004-06-05T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T04:30:45.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Opinion, Santa Monica, #archive-import, Homelessness

*By Dr. Mike Gruning Chairman, Santa Monica Chamber of Commerce*

The recent omission by staff of a so-called living wage in next year’s city budget may have been just what our city leaders need to help them focus on the needs and priorities of our residents, businesses and workers. In every dilemma there lies an opportunity, and with a budget already $4 million in the hole, we need to be very careful about how funds are allocated.

A recent Chamber of Commerce study, as well as numerous surveys by the City of Santa Monica, has indicated that the community wants our leaders to focus on issues that we encounter every day such as homelessness, parking and traffic, and our schools. The upcoming debate on the city budget offers just that opportunity. We believe in a fair wage for workers, and think that the city ought to have an open and focused debate on this issue, but is now the time? Can we afford a proposal that will add nearly $2 million in additional costs to the city budget. The voters spoke loudly when they recently defeated the living wage ordinance, and the City Council ought to closely review the impacts of such a measure before moving forward.

As city staff has said in published reports, “There are a number of priorities for our community, and we need to be very cautious how we spend the city’s funds.” We encourage our City Council members to take a hard look at the many issues that we face and consider how to balance the needs of workers and the needs of the community as a whole. We also encourage the council to bring the community into the debate by holding more public meetings, meeting one-on-one with business and community members and making sure that the budget process is transparent and inclusive.

We are indeed lucky that the budget deficit this year is only $4 million. Some communities in our region are facing huge, insurmountable budget problems. Here again as a community we have an opportunity to lead by showing other cities that Santa Monica is on the leading edge and can effectively address critical public issues.

We look forward to working closely with the city on this and other matters that affect the quality of life for all of us who live and work in this great town.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on June 5, 2004.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/060504.pdf?ref=smdp.com)