Mayor Ron Leone painted a very realistic picture in his State of the City address today at a luncheon hosted by the Chamber of Commerce at the Concord Hilton.
He explained the hard truths - that state raids on local funding and the elimination of redevelopment will make balancing the city's budget and closing the structural deficit just that much harder. He also pointed out how the now fewer, remaining city employees are being asked to do the same amount of work for less money and benefits.
On the positive side, Mayor Leone pointed out that the city is in a far better place, budget-wise, today than it was last year, or the year before, thanks to the revenue from Measure Q. In fact, if I read one of his PowerPoint slides correctly, Measure Q transaction taxes represent about 11% of Concord's General Fund revenues. And the recent audit shows the city's budget reserves have grown substantially in the past year after being nearly depleted as the city coped with the fall-out from the Great Recession.
The question will be should the city change the Measure Q strategy given the loss of redevelopment? Measure Q was sold to the voters as a way to maintain current city services and rebuild reserves over the measure's five year life so that the structural budget deficit could be erased within the next ten years. Can losing the programs previously funded by redevelopment be seen as anything but cutting - not maintaining city services?
Mayor Leone even raised the question of whether we should be thinking about possibly extending Measure Q when it expires in four years. He didn't take a position on that idea - just brought it up for discussion purposes.
The city continues to face tough decisions this year and probably will for several years to come. How to maintain essential city services, treat city employees fairly, keep faith with the taxpayers and rebuild budget reserves for the next downturn are on the City Council's agenda this Spring as they consider the next budget. They need to know what Concord residents and business owners think - about the use of Measure Q dollars, about city service priorities and, perhaps most importantly, how soon the local economy will begin to resemble the Concord we all knew only five short years ago.
