Finance Highlights 2008 0917 - Laserfiche WebLink

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CITY OF SAN LEANDRO MEMORANDUM DATE: September 11, 2008 TO: Finance Committee FROM: Steve Hollister,rerim City Manager er BY: Perry Carter, Interim Finance Director - SUBJECT: Current and Potential Budget Deficit Strategies Summary In July of this year, Council approved placing three revenue measures on the November 4, 2008 general election. They are Measure RR --Utility Users Tax, Measure SS --911 Tax and Measure TT --the Police Services Parcel Tax. Originally, the 911 and UUT tax measures, if passed, would retain revenue that the City already collects. However, due to a recent California Supreme Court decision, the City found it necessary to discontinue collecting the 911 Fee effective September 2, 2008. The Police Services Parcel Tax represents a new revenue source and would be used to fund existing service levels and to add limited new services. The three revenue measures on the November 2008 ballot grew out a series of meetings of the Council's Ad Hoc Budget Committee. The Committee was charged with addressing the issue of long-term financial stability for the City's General Fund. The Committee received a series of reports from staff discussing both revenue raising options and potential expenditure reductions. Due to time constraints associated with placing a measure on the November election, the Committee directed staff to go forward as soon as possible with recommendations to place three revenue measures on the November 4, 2008 election. In addition the Ad Hoc Budget Committee directed staff to develop a series of budget options to reduce the use of reserves for the 2008-09 Budget. After reviewing staff's list of budget options, the Committee forwarded a recommendation to the City Council to reduce the use of reserves by $4.6 million for 2008-09. In addition to the budget options used for the 2008-09 budget, the Ad Hoc Budget Committee was specifically concerned with future budgets and indicated that any reductions to service levels should be based on an understanding of what constitutes "the right level of service" for the City of San Leandro. As noted above, Council authorized discontinuance of the 911 Fee effective September 2, 2008. At that Council meeting staff reported on the financial impact of the revenue loss, both to the current fiscal year and the potential loss to future years. At the conclusion of that discussion, Council referred the matter to the Council Finance Committee and instructed the Finance