State budget will hurt cities,

Calabasas official says


State budget

will hurt cities,

By Michael Picarella

Acorn Staff Writer

The city of Calabasas can expect severe budget cuts from the state next year, according to Calabasas City Manager Donald Duckworth.


Gov. Gray Davis recently signed the budget that attempts to balance California’s books and the outcome doesn’t look good for local governments now or in the future, Duckworth said.


"The people need to decide that they don’t want to send money to Sacramento, that they want to keep it locally, and they need to enact some kind of constitutional amendment that says, ‘State, if you’re going down, don’t take the rest of us with you,’" Duckworth said.


Beginning in January, according to Duckworth, the city of Calabasas will lose:


•About $236,000 of the motor vehicle license fee pass-through for public safety


•About $245,000 for transportation programs


•About $140,000 for police programs


•About $14,000 for library programs


•Half of the city’s sales tax revenue


Calabasas received more than $2 million in sales tax revenue last year, according to the city’s interim finance director Bill Yeomans. The city can expect more than $1 million to be cut by the state.


Sacramento plans to pay the money back by sharing more of the city’s property taxes within six months to a year, Duckworth said.


Calabasas Mayor Pro Tem Michael Harrison said he doesn’t know if that would compensate for the loss in sales tax revenue because Calabasas generates a lot of it, especially from sources like the BMW dealership.


Cities previously received a full 1 percent of the sales tax that came from their area. That amount is to be slashed to ½ percent.


"If you’re a city that relies on sales taxes, it’s not going to be made up (completely) with increased property taxes," Harrison said.


Duckworth said he doesn’t think the state will keep its promises.


"The last time they promised something, they didn’t do it," Duckworth said. "Their credibility is pretty skinny as far as I’m concerned."


In response to the state’s budget cuts, Harrison said Calabasas must—like other cities—tighten its belt.


"This is just more reason to monitor our expenses, reduce our expenses and increase our revenues," Harrison said. "We have expenses that we need to control … We’re going to have to defer more capital improvement projects," he said.


Calabasas deferred about $3 million in capital improvement projects last year.


Capital improvement projects include roadwork, traffic signalization, city landscaping and other major expenditures.





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