San Jose is in trouble. No, it’s not about losing our title as “safest” big city in America and other meaningless titles. If I had to lose the “safest” and also the “10th Largest City in the US” titles, it would be a more than fair exchange, for few monikers have been so graspingly offensive as that last residue of the ancient regime. Never forget that not only was the Gonzales tenure venal, it was also incompetent and just plain dumb.
The major problem we are facing now is the yawning gap between our revenues and expenses—something glaring in a family or business, but what we call in government the “structural deficit.” When you have too little money and too many bills, that’s what you get. Our efforts, and the work of Chuck Reed in accomplishing same, will largely define this era of city government, just as downtown development or sprawl defined other eras. It is similar to the State of California imbroglio: not enough revenue and facing the choices of new taxes or slashing programs, pensions, or other employee benefits. As usual, the forces line up on each side quite vigorously.
I have a Thanksgiving wish and it is namely this: That those of us who really care about San Jose—whether business or labor, neighborhood leader or non-profit CEO, Democrat or Republican—join in a solemn attempt to put the city’s affairs back in decent order.
The deficit is set to increase to $137 million by 2011 and that’s sure to grow larger. The taskforce put together by the mayor and council can make recommendations but it cannot make the compromises and assume the accountability that is necessary for the welfare of the city. Now is the time for all good citizens to come to the aid of their city. It will take a level of maturity that has not been in evidence in labor leaders so used to doing what they wanted for years and business interests that increasingly hearken back to the “sprawl as you go” brand of boosterism noted for its amnesia over some of the reasons that San Jose has no tax base. We need to leave the past and commit to moving forward together. It is not impossible; in fact, it is the San Jose tradition.
Why the 2011 figure? 137 million sounds like a lot but if it is over 3 fiscal years, is it a lot compared to the past?
Is the Gonzales administration truly responsible for this? What about Hammer? Can someone do a trendline of revenue and expenditures going back 10-20 years?
Who was Gonzales budget director? Hammer’s?
If you do across the board cuts, does that mean all departments and programs are equal? Does it mean you don’t know the city well enough to make tough decisions?
The business sector in this part of the world is built on a high-risk/high-reward model. Even the average cube dweller (like me) has on one hand the possibility of riches from the stock market and unemployment within the year. This is what keeps cube dwellers in the office past 7 and on weekends. Just call it applied fear and greed. This is also what makes the silicon valley economy so efficient that it continues to lead the world.
Public employees on the other hand don’t have the risk/reward opportunities or problems. The chance of wealth is small (except for those who get into the lobby game) but the chance of being let go are nil.
This was understood for a long time and the bargain was lower wages for high job security and comfortable hours. Until now. Public employee wages have climbed without moderation and benefits (retirement in particular) have increased without restraint. It is time to say no. The auto companies wouldn’t restrain their employee demands and look where they are. We are rapidly coming to the same place. Is anyone tough enough to stand up to the public employee unions? Is Chuck?
I work for a Fortune 500 company in Downtown San Jose. I live in a small apartment in Willow Glen. I contribute to a 401k and a traditional IRA. I pay for health insurance through company offered plans. From 1982 through 2007 my annual income has never exceeded 34,000 dollars.
The pay of each city employee should not exceed 51,000 dollars. This is 50 percent more than my income and should be more than enough to pay living expenses and save for the future. Also, end all pensions for city workers and convert them to 401k plans.
Tom, great itm for discussion,both you and Pierluigi have hit on two good subject matters. I knoe you are a San Jose native and have a sence of Pride for and about your City.
We need to look at rhe high cost of living in San Jose and Santa Clara County for the young families and the less than privledged before we ask them to take a tax increase, especiall any tax increases that don`t benefit our city.
Go to one of Pierluigi`s respondents comments,”…The Median Household Income in san Jose is $70,243”. and compare it to other neighboring Santa Clara County cities before increasing taxes here.
“Saratoga Median Household Income (not including Monte Sereno) $139,895.,Los Altos $126,740. Los Gatos $119,194. Cupertino $100,411. Palo Alto $90,377 Milpitas $84,429 Morgan Hill $81,958. Gilroy $77,120.
Among 9 SCC Cities, San Jose has the lowest Household income. High Energy costs are hurting our economy and hits the less than priviliged the hardest.
Gasoline costs went well over $3 dollars a gollon this year and Chevron California is projecting the cost of Gas to go over $4 dollars a gallon this coming summer. Think of the families driving Hwy 85 five days a week from S J to a job in Mt. View and Palo Alto. Many of them saw weekly gasoline cost of over $400 dollars a month, and if you believe the Chevron projections, Gasoline costs will go over $600 dollars a month plus wear and tear on those cars.
The cost of living is up, many are losing their homes to foreclosures. The less than privilaged are car pooling from the Centeral Valley to Work in San Jose and Santa Clara County Jobs, their gasoline costs are out of site.
Consider witholding taxes for these people. How about college loan payments? How can you ask these people to pay higher taxes. When they read the newspapers and read what a VTA bus driver makes, and other City employees make, it makes them sick.
When we open our newspapers all we keep on hearing our City, County and State are broke, there is no money to fix the infrastructure problems.
When we open our newspapers in contrast to hearing our government is broke we read the continuing saga of BART to San Jose, the County just found $39 million to purchase a city block downtown. The City changed the Zoning laws at the Flea Market (a great Sales tax generator the city needs) to force the flea Market out and buy the rightaway for BART. The silicone Valley Chamber of Commerce is pushing the BART project. The Metro last week again raised the development of the residential area around the Future Bart station at the Flea Market site. VTA board and execuatives push BART.Railroad sells it`s fifteen mile segment in San Jose for BART extension. The stories go on and on.
The taxpayers, the voters have been saying NO to a sales tax increase to build the BART extension from Warm Springs since the year 2000, it`s now 2000 and interest groups that control the City and County decission makers are still pushing BART down the Voters throat.
Carl Gardino says and I agree in part,”…when you can`t get around traffic, and you can`t find good schools, those become bottom line issues”. I agree we need Rapid Transit to solve our problems in view of traffic grid lock and cost of rising gasoline, but if we`re going to take a sales tax increase, put the $$$ money behind projects that benefit the people of San Jose. Save them money so there is discressionary income they can spend on increased services, it makes the pill a lot easier to swallow.
Put San Jose First. Find new jobs, build new sales tax generators, build new incentives to help us pay for city services. Stop losing sales tax generators like the Flea Market ( they are considering morgan Hill). Make transportation within the city affordable for the working class.
the auto companies are in the can because, back in the late 1970’s, their boards of directors chose to hire financial wizards as management instead of the traditional managers, people who came from the auto industry.
Because they assumed that Americans owed them their business, they chose to invest the profits from the production of cars into the markets in order to increase short term earnings. Before this, they invested profits into improving their product.
Thus, they stopped improving their product and were eaten alive by Japanese.
The End.
Source: American Journeys by Richard Reeves
As we know, wages are the largest expense in most organizations. As so I propose a wage freeze on all departments of the city, with no exceptions. My second proposal is a 10% budget cut on all departments, with no exceptions. Let the department heads determine which sections are non-essential with no interference from the mayor or council
members. If these proposals are in conflict with existing labor contracts let the unions go to court and have the court decide if the fiscal
solvency of the city is more important than a contract. After a period to be determined later
and the city is solvent we can resume sensible
wage negotiations.
Good leaders never lack for followers.
The last 8 years exposed the dark side of our city officials. How well I know!
Where will our leaders take us the next 4 years. The benifit of the doubt was stolen away. We are now only left to feel our reality.
Empathy and hope is all we have. We have NOW in our city, thousands of good followers that became good leaders. If that is to be the legacy of the past administration, that they made it possible for many to find themselves moveing to the front of the line to take the lead, then so be it.
I am today giving thanks for the transformation that occurred within our city.
There will never be another administration capable of putting us in harms way again. Too many good followers, became good leaders.
I am feeling safe in my city once again.
Thanks Giving. What a perfect idea!
The Village Black Smith
One way to increase city revenue is to get all of the public employee union leaders in the ring down at the shark tank, sell tickets, and have them slug it out to see who gets the right to negotiate with the city on a new contract – at least this way the city might have a chance at decreasing its deficit.
In all seriousness, there needs to be a merging of all public employee unions into one group so that the city can properly determine and balance its actual working costs and retirement commitments without getting hammered from all ends. I know this is a pipe dream, but heck we need to get creative!
One budget, one union, and one negotiation. Come contract time, tell the union how much money there is, a salary cap, and have them decide how they want to spent it on public safety, public education, and public services. Of course by the time the negotiations are done, the city will have to probably cut a check for hospital bills!
Median Household income for Monte Sereno left out on #6
MHI Monte Sereno $154,268 San Jose $70,243.
Raise taxes in San Jose ??
If you are asking for more taxes – forget it!
Until there are no more “backroom” deals, no more disregard of financial responsibility, and no more arrogance behavior, I will vote no each and every time a tax is placed on the ballot.
Enough is enough; the city’s civil servants have let its citizens down and now must, in my opinion, find a way out without asking to be bailed out.
Maybe our local government should look at how the private sector deals with such an issue and follow accordingly.
Being Thanksgiving, maybe a refund for every resident isn’t out of the question since we cannot immediately fire the whole city government.
San Jose`s past leaders have built a dream land for retailers. The neighboring Cities have built the big retail revenue generators, Santa Clara, Campbell, Milpitas and now Morgan Hill is doing it. Even Los Gatos enjoys excellent retail sales in their downtown because of San Jose`s growth.
We need, #9 said,” to increase City revenue”. Start encouraging more retail business in our city, show them our demographics, our downtown is well on it`s way to becoming a big retail generator, support it. Build more shopping centers. Save the Flea Market, build a high rise downtown that covers the whole block at it`s base, get a large retailer, a department store to occupy the first four floors, something like a Bloomindales and more retail on the next four floors.this will generate revenue. Connect downtown to Santana Row/Westfield Mall. Build out Burbank area with more retail, Lou`s Village used to generate sales tax dollars.
“North San Jose”, insert plans for the next giant mall to support all the residential going in that area. Get the Light Rail to the Airport from downtown.
With increased sales tax dollars we can come out of our problems with more vnue.
Tom,
You said,”…Never forget that only was the Gonzales tenure venal, , it was also incompetent and just plain dumb”.
I agree, I did not vote for him either. We have a good Mayor today that is trying very hard to pull us out of the wild spending of the Gonzales years. Gonzales didn`t have his priorities right either. Now our new City Council and City management struggle and suffer.
We move along with our City streets in the the worst condition in the Nation, staffing problems at Libraries, our parks in need of attention, we have a shortage of parks, traffic conjestion everywhere. Then the problems of San Jose and the County losing jobs, and not enough sales tax revenue to pay for city services.
Gonzales was also a big backer for building BART from San Jose to Alameda County. I must say I`d like to see BART extension to Alameda County from San Jose Built before I die, but do think we have a lot more pressing problems today than watching the city and county spending all this money to support the construction of BART at this time.
Purchasing a City block downtown for a BART station ($39 million), purchasing a 15 mile Rail Road right away for Bart, pushing the Flea Market out( great sales tax generator),pushing for affordable housing at the Flea Market site to support BART, adding bus service to Berryesa to support BART, and now the question of where HOT money will be used when given to VTA.
Haven`t we learned from the mistakes of the Gonzales years ? Isn`t it time we put San Jose First. Interstate 280 the 101 and Hwy 85 are all grid locked during traffic commute hours, diamond lanes for commuters are becoming cloged during prime usage hours.
You and I can remember the 1979 days in San Jose when we had so much grid lock in our city that IBM threatened to close their S J facility and move everything to Tuscon, Ariz. This sent our property values down, all new construction came to a hault. Remember the photo on the cover of a magazine showing a car stuck on top of an incomplete freway ramp over the 101.Today S J IBM is gone and Tuscon IBM is still in operation.
Tom here we are again, 101 and I-280 north and southbound backing up, the guadalupe is a big parking lot, the diamond lane on 85 often gets cloged and we are losing jobs.
All kinds of new high density construction in Willow Glen and Downtown San Jose along the I-280 corridor, The Hwy 87 & Hwy 85 interchange is a mess, 101 to 280 to “Downtown San Jose is cloged, 85 to I-280 to downtown is cloged. The State of California just recently just turned down Jim Beal`s request to fix the I-280/I-880 Interstate problem. Our City Streets go un repared. The lLight Rail into the Golden Traiagle lacks good supporting VTA bus service to jobs in the Triangle area.
Tom, all of this can hurt the bueatiful rebuilding of Downtown San Jose. People that would think of moving downtown, companies thinking of locating their headquarters down town take one look at our traffic mess @ 87 &85; interchange and see a headache for them. Compeeting Cities looking for jobs with San Jose will point out all of San Jose`s traffic nightmares. This has got to hurt the new Downtown
Then our City leaders wonder why we are losing jobs, they strugle trying to find a way to continue paying for City services.
Tom, do you think we are headed in the same direction as Gonzales did, “with the wrong priorities” ? Do you see a solution for this? Are we heading in the same direction as San Diego? Are our VTA people aware of our needs ? Have we forgotten 1979?
Gonzales was also a big backer of building BART from San Jose to Alameda County.
Tom – you’ve got it a bit sideways. Our greatest San Jose tradition is “spend it on my neighborhood, not theirs!”
Many respondents here have it right. PUT SAN JOSE FIRST. ALL OF SAN JOSE. Not Willow Glen, not Evergreen, not Downtown, not Midtown, not North San Jose, not Coyote Valley.
We need a concrete and conclusive plan for the future of San Jose…ALL OF SAN JOSE. And we need to sell the plan to the citizens of San Jose instead of merely imposing it on San Jose (just eat it, it will be good for you).
Yes, we may have to defer some neighborhood initiatives until “the greater good” is served. But we’ve got to put first things first. We’ve got to put San Jose first…ALL OF SAN JOSE.
Since when does pushing housing into the Central Valley count as stopping sprawl?
That’s like losing weight by walking the extra block to eat at McDonalds.
RIP – we once had such a “concrete and conclusive plan” and I ran twice on it. It was namely, STOP sprawl, control the special interests and FIXERs, and build our TAX base incl. the DOWNTOWN – it worked and we should all hope that Chuck Reed can do it again. TMcE
since when does bowing to the googleplex and creating jobs for people you can’t house and pocketing the tax receipts stop sprawl by sending it south to San Jose. Sounds more like having your cake and eating it to me.
Building BART will encourage more housing sprawl and transfer jobs to East Bay and Central Valley while Silicon Valley transit and traffic problems get worst since BART costs will drain billions from unfunded local transit and streets
Ask Greg Perry or VTA Board about VTA payments to BART, needed sales taxes increases for construction and operating costs and VTA service cuts after BART
Greg – we can stop sprawl here in San Jose and kill off the lobbyist culture, and you can go south and to the Central Valley and lecture them about housing: Deal? Please don’t try to make the City that provides historically most of the low and moderate income in the region feel too bad. Responsibility starts at home. TMcE
TMcE-
What does “stop sprawl here in San Jose” mean? Sprawl is not a small local phenomenon which is stops neatly at city limits.
Sprawl is a regional phenomenon which covers dozens of cities in several counties.
Your proposed solution (restrictions on housing) just mean that the sprawl has to spread even wider. That is more sprawl, not less.
We’d do better if San Jose used it’s muscle to build a regional concensus on housing and take some of the pressure off. Instead, you’re advocating San Jose adopt the same pro-sprawl policies as Santa Clara, Palo Alto, Cupertino, and Mountain View.
WGD-
I was, and am, a vocal opponent of expanding Googleplex. You are right. We have no business adding office space if we are unwilling to house the workers.
Just because I’m from Mountain View doesn’t mean I agree with all our policies any more than being from San Jose means you support Ron Gonzales.
Greg, when we look at the grid lock beginning early in the morning on Hwy 85, we see an outpouring of San Jose residents entering 85 to go to work in jobs in Mt. View and Palo Alto. The diamond lane is also slowing on 85.
By the time traffic from San Jose to Mt. View gets to the 85/17-880 interchange more San Jose residents enter the 85 grid lock and then the same is true as traffic moves along to the 85/I-280 interchange. By this time the diamond lane is packed too, now add a HOT lane ?
All these San Jose commuters work and spend their lunch and sometimes dinner money in Mt. View and Palo Alto. Hwy 85,880,and 280 and Cal train help make all this possible. San Jose`s bedroom community is supplying all the workers.
San Jose has all the cost of city services for these people and sets aside valuable City land for schools. This is not a win-win. San Jose loses.
San Jose, and the Santa Clara County Cities, the County and VTA need to begin focusing on home. VTA efforts should go toward improving “quality of life” for residents of SCC. Focusing on local opportunities.
San Jose needs revenue, it`s residents need to be able to get to work with afforable transportation. It`s libraries need staffing, it`s parks need attention, it`s roads need to be repaired. We need to make San Jose more desirable. We need to put San Jose first, the neighboring cities have a vested interest in San Jose`s success. If S J continues to lose jobs and sales tax revenues it will fail and that will hurt its neighboring cities that feed off it.
This is why I believe we should learn from our past mistakes, stop the sprawl Build a successful mass transit system. Build afforable housing in the city so those car pooling from the Centeral Valley can live and spend their money here. Make transportation so affordable to help produce discressionary income.
Create jobs in downtown San Jose for young people, build affordable housing for them to live in after they graduate, but build it here. We have nothing for these people to remain here once they finish schooling.
Management in the foodservice and hospality industries both cry for workers for the lower paying jobs and they tell us that these people can`t afford to live here.
This is my point,” the timing for our VTA people to build BART to Alameda County couldn`t be worse”, BART would be nice, I`d like to see it but…
Build more mass transit that keeps our people here, don`t send them to Alameda County to help the cities from Warm Springs north to Oakland. This is just repeating our past mistakes over again. This leaves San Jose with the housing and the city services and benefits the neighboring County of Fremont.
We need a strong City Center and build out from there. San Jose now has all the valuable land along San Carlos Street to Winchester and the North First street Corridor to build out from its City Center. “We have lots of problems, lots of opportunities.
Richard, et al-
The small cities aren’t relying on San Jose to build housing. They are building jobs with absolutely no concern for where the workers come from. They don’t care what San Jose, or anyone else, does.
If you ask the councilmembers or city staff where the workers will live, they don’t know and they don’t care.
Which is why San Jose can’t force a solution by copying Santa Clara’s policies. The small cities will just keep building jobs right along with you, while the air gets worse and the last poor families are forced out.
(Then we can all blame George Bush and Haliburton.)
I don’t know what a solution is. I wish I did.
If ABAG had teeth, they could decertify the housing elements of the worst offenders.
If San Jose had better state reps, maybe they could get Sacramento to implement stronger housing requirements. Or repeal Bradley Burns (the local sales tax) for cities that refuse to build housing.
Who are Silicon Valley’s sprawl creators?
The ” do as I saw, not as I do ” elected officials and other Santa Clara county city residents who do not build sufficient houses but have too many jobs and fight county wide public transit to connect people to home / jobs / retail / airport
Look at housing to jobs balance numbers and lack of density / building heights and overall housing even at CalTrain, downtown areas or major street / highways
New 2-3 story buildings are not helping housing problem or expecting San Jose to build Silicon Valley housing while San Jose has negative fiscal impacts and San Jose residents having lower quality of life and have to work in other cities
Palo Alto is worst followed by Santa Clara, Milpitas, Mountain View, Cupertino Los Gatos, Campbell listed from worst to barely ok
San Jose has tried to encourage other cites to increase housing but none want to so many San Jose residents want to restrict housing until we get more jobs so our city residents don’t have even lowest Silicon Valley quality of life