Mayor Heather Fargo met with the Sacramento Bee editorial board yesterday and told them “the city is too reliant on development as a revenue source and a change is in order.”
Good thing she cleared that up for us.
If re-elected for a third term as mayor, Fargo promises to address the city’s “$55 million budget deficit, a situation caused in part by a marked slowdown in property, utility users and sales tax revenues,” the Bee reports.
Click here to read the whole story.
Funny – a 180 degree turn around since her comments last week about getting the building moratorium lifted ASAP.
Has just a hint of possible competition in the next election made her a better listener? Or a more astute politician giving lip service to some of our concerns?
Well, the reality is, the city can’t really do much about revenue other than allowing development that generates more revenue than it costs (i.e., commercial). The only alternative is to get the voters to approve some other kind of tax, which isn’t too likely. One reason they are in this mess is they dragged their feet too long on allowing retail in NN, in an attempt to protect Downtown Plaza. Remember, they originally didn’t want any big retail here, not even the Marketplace, which was a last-minute change the mayor opposed (it’s turned out to be a huge sales-tax generator, helping the city from being even further in the hole).
But they sure could do a better job with what they have. They donated over $5 million to the Crocker Gallery, about 10% of the deficit. Plus untold millions in redevelopment money (that would otherwise go into general funds) to prop up downtown. And wait for the railyard subsidies to get rolling. We haven’t seen anything yet.