Finance Highlights 2008 0917 - Laserfiche WebLink

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As noted above, the City put in place several cost containment measures. These included: personnel reductions in Public Safety and other departments; reduction of Library hours; and the reallocation of costs to other funds, where appropriate. Relatively recent economic events of an unprecedented nature have once again forced the City to consider revisiting revenue enhancements/cost reductions in order to stabilize the City's General Fund. In this report staff is exploring only the revenue side of the budget equation. The Ad Hoc Committee may direct staff to consider expenditure reductions, program reductions and other cost containment measures. Should that be the case, staff will prepare additional information outlining possible reductions to City services for the Committee's consideration. Local Revenue Measures in 2008 A key consideration for any proposed revenue measure is the application of Proposition 218. Proposition 218, among other things, requires voter approval for many revenue measures. The following is a brief summary of how local revenue measures, subject to Proposition 218, fared in the February 2008 election. There were nearly 100 local measures including 61 related to local agency taxes, fees, and financing. Of these, 13 were considered city taxes, fees or financings, 2 concerned special districts, 2, concerned counties, and 44 were school measures. Among the 13 city measures, 6 were special taxes requiring 2/3 voter approval and 7 concerned general taxes requiring majority voter approval. The county and special district measures were all 2/3 majority measures. The school district measures were a combination of 55% and 2/3 required for approval. The following table is a summary of the results for the city measures: Local Revenue Measures February 2008 Local Agency Total Pass Passin % City Majority Vote 7 7 100% Cit 2/3 Vote 6 4 67% Count 2/3Vote 2 0 0% Special District 2/3 Vote 2 2 100% School Bond 55% 38 29 76% School 2/3 Vote 6 5 83% Total 61 47 77% As can be seen from table above, the revenue measures were fairly successful, with an overall pass rate of 77%. Of particular interest is the outcome of the city measures. Those requiring only a majority to pass were 100% successful. Those requiring a 2/3 vote did not do as well, with a pass rate of 67%. The lesson may be that a revenue measure that is general in nature i.e.