Observations on our budget

The City of Santa Clarita should be commended for its disciplined approach to fiscal management.  Despite continued pressure on tax revenues, the City has assembled a balanced budget that has no notable cuts to City services while aligning expenses accordingly.  The budget also accounts for a vigorous schedule of capital improvements to our great City.

Some observations after perusing the 2010 – 2011 Budget for the City of Santa Clarita:

• Reduction in expenses aligned with projected revenue shortfall, primarily through position eliminations, reductions in contracted & temp staff
  • Nearly every expense category has been reduced by at least a few basis points
  • A 2% increase in Sheriff’s costs, notable mainly because it is one of the few increases in the plan
  • A whopping 33% drop in transit costs, from $30M to $20M. The original 2009 budget reflects a transit budget of $22M.  In its 2010-2011 budget, the City offers no explanation for the $8M increase over plan nor the rationale for returning to normal funding levels.
• Federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) comprises $17M to fund 19 projects “the largest source of grant funding” according to Pulskamp (cue a Palin-esque wink to the Tea Party crowd)

• An impressive if not aggressive amount of capital projects, notably:
  • A $6.1M Park and Ride lot for the MRTC, including 200+ space lot, bicycle lockers and a passenger drop off area. Perhaps we can avoid the premium parking fees as prognosticated on SCVTalk in March?
  • $1.6M for Phase 2 of the landscape water management program, which will conclude the program and save 150M gallons of water annually
  • Trails in the recently-purchased Walker Ranch open space

• Badly needed, longstanding infrastructure issues addressed:
  • Finally, a sidewalk for Newhall Avenue as Jeff lamented in June
  • Striped bike lanes on various roads leading to the Valencia Industrial Center, providing an alternative to the treacherous Rye Canyon route
  • Bike lanes on Hillsborough Way, Grandview Drive & Centre Pointe in accordance with the NMTP
  • A record $8.7M in funding for Road Overlay Program, which slurry seals needy streets
  • Beautification projects for some SCV eyesores
    • $1M worth of improvements the median on Soledad Canyon Road east of Bouquet
    • Replacement of chain link fencing on Railroad with lodge pole fencing between the Midas Muffler and Kiss Storage
    • Trees planted from Magic Mountain to Lyons

For all the criticism we’ve lodged toward the City as of late, it’s worth pausing for a moment, looking around at our neighboring cities, and giving Santa Clarita City staff credit for their fiscal discipline.

Meat and potatoes on improvements to bike lanes, trails and the MRTC: