Figures just released by the Sacramento Bee calculate how much local counties, cities, and redevelopment agencies across the state will be forced to pay to cover the $3.7 billion that the state needs to balance its own budget. In Santa Clara County, that sum comes to $185,253,807.
Of that, $42.5 million comes directly from the County. Another $142 million comes from local municipalities as big as San Jose ($81,758,854) or as small as Monte Sereno ($87,693). More than one-third of the total sum ($62,187,257) comes from a single body, the San Jose Redevelopment Agency.
Some solutions have already been offered. Yesterday SanJose.com reported that city auditors have found a way for San Jose to save as much as $20 million on health care costs for municipal employees. While the unions have yet to chime in on the proposal, that could cover all of the money that the State wants to take from San Jose’s city government (with enough left over to help out poor Monte Sereno). But that will still leave the Redevelopment Agency unable to redevelop.
The city of Santa Clara isn’t much better off. It’s expected to cough up more than $13 million, including almost 10 million from its redevelopment agency. But this is where size matters. The costs accrued by City Hall alone come to just $19 per resident in San Jose but to $27 per resident in Santa Clara. In fact, only Morgan Hill will be paying less per resident than San Jose. Politicians and activists point out that the cost of dozens of jobs and basic social services will hurt the city’s most needy residents. And it will still leave the Redevelopment Agency unable to redevelop.
Or perhaps redevelopment isn’t in the cards for Santa Clara County this year. Mayor Chuck Reed of San Jose is already suggesting that several major projects, including the expansion of the convention center and a new baseball stadium, will be stalled or even cancelled. Yet while those may be considered frills, Reed says his real concern is that the state’s budgetary problems will not be resolved even after local governments give up their money. In that case the cuts will come even deeper.
Read More in California City News.
Read More in the Sacramento Bee.
Read More at KLIV.
Read More in the Mercury News.
you wrote:“Yesterday SanJose.com reported that city auditors have found a way for San Jose to save as much as $20 million on health care costs for municipal employees. While the unions have yet to chime in on the proposal, that could cover all of the money that the State wants to take from San Jose’s city government (with enough left over to help out poor Monte Sereno).”
Did you read your own article? If the sate is taking [“comes from local municipalities as big as San Jose ($81,758,854)”] $81 million+ from SJ, how does $20 Million cover that $81+ million?
How very interesting that SJ can find $20 mil laying around at this point in time. Why on Earth didn’t this sort of savings surface years ago?
As for cleaning out the RDA, I couldn’t be happier. For too long, basic needs like roads, schools, safety and neighborhood services have suffered while the RDA has been flush with cash, unable to spend it quickly enough. Looks like that dichotomy has come to an end.
10th Largest,
Just what I need to start my day… a good laugh at your expense. Are you peddling sour grapes now?
This is good news. Get rid of the parasite RDA and get those savings on health care costs for municipal employees. There’s still too much waste in government but this is a start.
The State is doing the right thing. This is not simply the State stealing money from the City. If the State budget situation is bad enough that CSU has to curtail enrollment, then shifting money from Redevelopment makes sense. Why should the SJ RDA remain flush with cash while students in our local schools suffer the consequences of the State budget mess? Given a choice between expanding the Convention Center, or truly investing in the future by diverting funds to SJSU, I would choose education. Business and community leaders with a long term perspective would probably agree.
The State and City are geographically and fiscally overlapping entities. Characterizing the State’s initiative as “taking” without explaining the “giving”, or big picture public benefit, is incomplete. In general, RDAs have become too large anyway and there are a host of arguments about why reclaiming RDA revenue for core government functions is long overdue.
#1 JMO: We probably weren’t clear enough. The $81 million is San Jose city government plus RDA. The City’s piece is just under $20 million.
Thank God the ballpark will be privately financed. Greg Howes the happiest man in SJ; perhaps no money for economic stimulus projects that would create jobs and generate tax revenue. And your happy Greg!?
After the RDA took money from the schools, the state took money from the RDA.
Cry me a river.
It’s bad economic planning by the state, but the RDA has no leg to stand on. It wasn’t their money to begin with.
Readers Final Poll Name Phil Bump as the writer of San Jose Revealed.
Thanks , Phil, for the memory
Of drive by blogging in secret
Publishing a prosecutors home address for gangs to attack
how lovely it was!
Thanks for the memory
Of smarmy little quips, nasty comments about Pulcrano
Libeling in secret, writing with a hood on, slamming from behind
How lovely it was!
Many’s the time lawyers went to serve You
And many’s the time we watched Team Chavez give you the envelopes
Oh, well, it was swell while it lasted
You did have fun and did a lot of harm
And thanks for the memory
Now Eric Gioia is hiding you
You might have been a headache but you never were a bore
So thank you so much.
Thanks for the memory
Of sentimental verse, McEnery whom you cursed
A secret complaint with a lawyer, maybe the one coming
Your way, has a name on it, someone really did drop a dime
How lovely it was
Thanks for the memory
Of nasty little hints from Justin
Eric Hernandez’s little imbroglio
How lovely it was!
San Jose says good bye
Then I got as “high” as a steeple
But we were intelligent people
No tears, no fuss, Hooray! For us
So, thanks for the memory
You thought your were a big shop, and shrieked like a girl
And how are all the little dreams that never did come true?
Aw’flly glad you called and pleaded and begged
, cheerio, and toodle-oo
And thank you so much
Let’s say the population of this county is 1,837,075.
I’d be willing to cut a check to the State of California for $100.84. This would cover my portion of the debt that the people of Santa Clara County owe to the State.
Of course, as a citizen of Santa Clara County, and of the City of San Jose, I’d need assurance that from now on I be treated with some modest degree of respect by the City and the County.
(Yeah, fat chance.)
For the record, it’s Prop. 13 that has taken money from our schools, not RDA’s.
Second, while our RDA will loose out to the tune of $60+ million, it’ll still have $140 million for projects.
Most likely our neighborhoods loose out to downtown development.
Oh well, at least the Greg’s are happy.
Just as I was getting close to seeing the light regarding the tremendous contribution illegal immigrants have meant to our economy and tax coffers, wouldn’t you know it, nobody’s talking about them anymore. Why is that? What happened to all the wetback-loving politicians who declared their cities sanctuaries, made speeches at rallies, and scoffed at the the idea that the law meant something? Could they be too busy these days with the scramble to keep their governments from bankruptcy? But what of the smug academics who cared nothing about the negative impact that illegal immigration had in the blue collar sector? Might they be too busy now with the protection of their own sector? And what of those holier-than-thou activists who insisted that the millions of illegals working under the table were still paying their own way for services? Are they today so busy fighting against the outright dismantling of all social services that they’ve abandoned the fight for La Raza?
By the way, since I haven’t really been keeping up: how are those hospitals, schools, and prisons doing? You know, the ones that those “racist haters” always said would inevitably crumble under the weight of Latin America’s desperate masses? Is it a coincidence that after being overrun by millions of services-sucking poor people that our government ran out of money for services? Just where are those tens of billions of dollars that the illegals allegedly pay in taxes?
This week San Jose’s city leaders announced that they’ve found a way to save twenty million dollars by reductions in their employees’ health insurance; making cuts in packages that those very same city leaders just recently approved. This twenty million dollars of taxpayer money will not open one city park, pave one city street, trim one city tree, or make a single resident safer. What it will do is help pay for past mistakes…
in a state where NOT A SINGLE MISTAKE has even been acknowledged.
Eric#8—thanks for the clarification.
10th Largest,
OMG, how very fortunate I am. Once again, you’ve enabled me to start my day with a hearty laugh… again at your expense! Your veiled disappointment regarding RDA’s $60 mil loss is delightful – thanks!