“Our goal is to provide you a budget where we’ve tried to make the toughest decisions on your behalf and tried to do everything we can to avoid service cuts and reductions in labor,” Flad said. “That said, one of the reasons why we’re having this discussion now is I think this budget is going to be the toughest we’ve experienced so far.”
The discussions came two days after finance officials presented a revised city budget forecast for the current year that reflects a recurring deficit of more than $5.7 million. City officials say that gap can be plugged with one-time funds.
Uncertain economic conditions, elevated unemployment rates, a soft housing market and raids by the state have led cities across the region to consider salary freezes, layoffs, furloughs and pension cost-sharing, Deputy City Manager Justin Hess said. In Burbank, the state has already borrowed about $3.5 million from the general fund and taken more than $19 million in redevelopment money.
He pointed to the rising cost of labor and benefits — even as the city has responded to the increased need for services in parks, libraries and police and fire departments — as another major drag on finances.
“From my perspective, I don’t know that I’d want to say certain services or programs are ‘untouchable’ without seeing the whole picture,” Councilman Dave Golonski said.
He joined Councilman David Gordon in resisting a recommendation to raise fees, including a 10% franchise charge on private waste haulers and a 1% fee on cable bills that together would generate more than $1 million in revenue.
“I think it’s wonderful that we’re getting real here,” Gordon said. “The way I feel about it is we’re further from happy days being here again and closer to ‘Brother, can you spare a dime?’”
He called on the city to scrutinize consulting contracts and to tighten its policies concerning oversight of capital projects.
Vice Mayor Anja Reinke and Councilman Jess Talamantes said it would be wise to explore all revenue options, including hiking the hotel occupancy tax from 10% to 12%, and the parking tax from 12% to 12.5%. Voters would have to approve each of those initiatives, which Flad said would more directly affect nonresidents.
Taken together with an updated utility user tax of 7% that incorporates water and sewer services, the measures could generate nearly $5 million for the general fund.
“I want to see what type of revenues are available before I start dipping into one-time reserves, labor strategies and service program cuts,” Talamantes said.
