Concord residents and businesses received the City's Annual Report for fiscal year 2007-2008 in the mail last weekend.
You can download it in Adobe PDF (4+mb file) here.
Concord has an excellent staff. They work very hard to make sure city programs and services are of the highest quality and delivered in a cost effective manner.
The budget - revenue sources and major expenditure categories - is detailed on pages 8 and 9. Our two primary sources of revenue are Sales Tax and Property Tax. Concord receives only 3/4 of a penny of the 8 1/4 cents sales tax paid on purchases made in Concord and receives only $9 out of every $100 paid in property tax. The rest goes to the State or County for services and programs they provide, including public education.
All indications are the State Budget standoff will be partially resolved by taking a percentage of every Redevelopment Agency's funding. Current figures indicate our Agency could lose approximately $800,000 per year - perhaps permanently. That's money Concord will not have to fund capital improvement projects designed to raise our property values, revitalize commercial areas and improve the local economy.
Let's hope our leaders in Sacramento find a better budget solution than stealing funds from local governments. Especially when the short term fix undermines long term economic growth and the taxes that growth will generate.
