Antioch council approves budget as city grapples with deficit

ANTIOCH Facing a deficit the Antioch City Council unanimously approved the city s - fiscal year budget as personnel acknowledged the challenges ahead and the need to address shortfalls With a projected revenue of around million the city plans to spend about million in the next fiscal year Related Articles San Mateo supervisors scrutinize sheriff s spending for table massage chairs TV Pleasanton lays off workers guts library hours to plug budget hole Pittsburg approves million general fund budget BART wants sales tax increase but its payrolls soared as ridership declined San Jose could receive more than million after approving digital billboards at three new locations City Manager Bessie Scott noted the council and city staff have systematically examined the budget since March which proved an initial deficit of about million Scott reported staff was able to shave off about million bringing the deficit down to million After further scrutiny and a series of adjustments including an injection of million from the Budget Stabilization Fund the general fund budget was reduced to a net deficit of We want to acknowledge that there are budgetary challenges in this first fiscal year coming up announced Scott They include slower revenue rise rising costs deferred maintenance and state and federal funding uncertainty In her budget overview Scott attributed the slow increase in key revenue sources such as cannabis sales and transient occupancy taxes to be moderate due to continued economic uncertainty and shifts in consumer behavior Deferred maintenance for several critical infrastructure and capital improvement projects will also require key expenditure in the near term reported the document Scott noted that a large number of of the city s grant-supported programs face uncertainties due to realizable changes in federal appropriations which may limit our ability to maintain arrangement levels Scott acknowledged that staff would continue working to reduce the million deficit and explore procedures to further reduce the projected million deficit for fiscal year with minimal or no use of reserves or Budget Stabilization funds Finance Director Dawn Merchant revealed that despite achieving a balanced budget through the utilization of the general fund reserve more work requirements to be done to achieve a healthy budget Merchant stated if nothing is done the city will have to use almost million from its Budget Stabilization Fund for the - fiscal year And then in we re utterly out of money It s urgent that we continue to chip away at this budget over the next fiscal year announced Merchant Hopefully we can get that million down to nothing or if anything at least within a couple of million dollars over what measures we take A staff document noted that in fiscal year - the city could face a deficit of about million Merchant emphasized it was imperative to address structural requirements and the city s spending priorities moving forward given the economic volatility and external federal funding sources received The approved - budget will see funded positions in the city a drop from funded positions This includes a reduction in police department staffing from in to next year Staff noted that the City Council has directed that the sworn staffing level be increased to positions by fiscal year The police department will also receive a large chunk of money from Measure W a sales tax approved by voters in The projected sales tax for fiscal year is almost million of which the police department will receive or about million The remaining Measure W funds will be equally allocated to quality-of-life initiatives such as code enforcement community safety and society materials departments as well as youth networks and recreation services Merchant clarified that despite the community s declares and concerns there would be no cuts to youth organization services She explained that the funding for the services including those presented during the various budget survey sessions remained Merchant commented the City Council also approved a million award from California Assistants Youth Services Corp which was anticipated and built into the budget However Councilmember Tamisha Torres-Walker clarified that the community was concerned because the last budget examination session discussed allocating from Measure W for youth configuration services instead of the that was finalized Merchant assured that the budget for youth arrangement services will remain the same The only change is the percentage allocated from Measure W versus the general fund I m just clarifying I don t want to have us saying the constituents is lying or miscommunicated to because that s actively what they saw happen explained Torres-Walker They saw the numbers being moved around from Measure W and the concern is this is going to be detrimental to the critical services that s being provided to them in the locality