April 2008 | by Kenya Warren
Once again, the State of California is proposing to balance their budget by imposing cuts on city revenues. The City of Del Mar will lose $179,268 in public-safety funding if the State's proposed alternative budget is adopted.
Governor Schwarzenegger declared a fiscal emergency in January 2008 with a $14.5 billion deficit. This required the Legislature to address the fiscal crisis resulting in mid-year budget cut bills that reduced the shortfall by approximately $7.5 billion. Despite those budget cuts, the Legislative Analyst's Office (LAO) announced that the state budget deficit is closer to $16 billion instead of $14.5 billion as originally projected by the Governor. The LAO took an unusual further step by offering an alternative proposed state budget, which included several elements that would directly impact public safety in California cities.
The City of Del Mar will lose $69,663 from its sales-tax revenues because of the reallocation of all Proposition 172 funding to new special county Public Safety Realignment Accounts. Prop 172 monies come from the l/2 cent state sales tax that was approved in 1993 by California voters and was intended to mitigate the impact of property-tax shifts on local public-safety operations.
Del Mar will lose another $100,000 by the elimination of the Citizens Option for Public Safety (COPS) program. The COPS program provides, among other things, an annual subvention of state funds for supplemental local law enforcement (SLESF) allocated to cities, counties and five police special districts on a per capita basis with $100,000 minimum grant per agency. These monies are used, together with funding from the City of Del Mar's General Fund, to achieve additional enforcement related to beach activities. This funding provides a Park Ranger who also issues parking citations and enforces all municipal-code violations at the beach.
By the elimination of the Local Detention Facility Subventions, the City of Del Mar loses $9,605. The deletion of this funding would result in the return of county booking fees charged to cities and others. So, not only will the city be receiving fewer resources, the LAO proposal will assure that the remaining resources are drawn down by the city being required to pay booking fees to counties.
In total, the LAO proposed alternative budget will reduce revenues for public safety in the City of Del Mar by a total of $179,268.
Kenya Warren is Interim Assistant City Manager.
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