The Oakland budget, by the numbers
on June 24, 2010
A quick look at a few of the numbers you should know before the city council deliberates the budget Thursday night, June 24.
6 Comments
Oakland North welcomes comments from our readers, but we ask users to keep all discussion civil and on-topic. Comments post automatically without review from our staff, but we reserve the right to delete material that is libelous, a personal attack, or spam. We request that commenters consistently use the same login name. Comments from the same user posted under multiple aliases may be deleted. Oakland North assumes no liability for comments posted to the site and no endorsement is implied; commenters are solely responsible for their own content.
Oakland North
Oakland North is an online news service produced by students at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism and covering Oakland, California. Our goals are to improve local coverage, innovate with digital media, and listen to you–about the issues that concern you and the reporting you’d like to see in your community. Please send news tips to: oaklandnorthstaff@gmail.com.
I challenge the reporter to re-examine some of the information provided by elected leaders. For example: Show us EXACTLY where the $170 million in cuts came from. Then calculate those cuts per fiscal year — 2008 is 2 or 3 fiscal years ago so aggregate numbers really aren’t helpful analytical reference points. Otherwise, you’re just regurgitaing the politicians’ message.
Another example: 9% police pension contribution would yield $7.8 million or equivalent to the cost of about 40 POLICE officer position not City jobs in general.
Adding parking meters & eliminating free employee parking are not cuts; they’re revenue generators. But what will they yield? Will empty parking spaces in garages & meters actually yield that much more money? If so, how much?
The ballot measures being discussed right now remain moving targets — not a sure thing. For instance, Council members still disagree about how much the parcel tax should be per household. And the sales tax increase is hotly debated because it might discuourage retailers the City is so desperate to attract. Sales tax is also likely to be opposed by community groups who advocate for lower income families who will be hurt by higher prices. Will politicians support this while running for election?
lc, did the cc release their assumptions and calculation of the 360 parcel taxZ
fc, what you figure the additional parcel tax needed wb to cover the pre Calpers 400Mill, the 600Mill retirement medical, the several hundred thou of Calpers smoothing, and the ousd deficit after they cut current one in half.
say paid off over 15 years. i’m guestimating about 800 to a 1000 before excluding the one proposed above.
I very much like this way of displaying the info succinctly, LC. Nicely done! Also, the commenters raise interesting questions about sources of the info and where/how to dig farther in as this argument continues.