CITY OF SAN JOSE BUDGET ISSUES
By Hilbert Morales, EL OBSERVADOR 

             
It seems that what is most required by elected officials is the patience and restraints needed to cope effectively with the natural urge to keep proposing public policy which requires more than the tax and fee revenues realized. This is a very complicated mosaic of related issues that have not been faced realistically. Mayor Chuck Reed, who is highly regarded by many constituents, wants to deal with the people's business in a transparent manner so the public has every opportunity to review and comment as appropriate. This required the realistic presentation made through the State of the City report, which projects the $100 million budget deficit accumulated by spending more than the tax revenues being realized. 
To balance the city's budget, a high level of restraint in spending must occur that begins in Sacramento. For several years, Sacramento has not contained nor reduced program spending. Rather it has dipped into the budgets of cities and counties to redirect revenues from local budgetary needs to the ones the Governor and Assembly deem more essential. The California State budget must stop raiding our local budgets. Its elected officials must do what is responsible and accountable. They must reduce the state budgetary needs. They must examine all current operations with an eye to detecting and eliminating low priority budget items, inefficiency, and shut down operations no longer needed. The State of California must learn to live within its own tax revenues without looking towards Washington, D.C. for federal bailout monies. The federal government has its own massive deficit challenges.
Since the major costs of providing local government services are the salaries related to personnel staffing, no one should be surprised to hear that one way to balance the San Jose civic budget is to ask everyone to consider a choice: Accept a 15% wage & benefits reduction or face having 525 colleagues be laid off. An approach that needs to be explored is that of sharing the work that needs to be done. Retain the full work force, but reduce the workweek to 32 hours (four days) and spread the work to be done around with the help of the union officials so that, while an employee may see personal income reduced, the greater good is faced. More employees get to stay on the job and the available wages budgeted get distributed to the benefit of as many as possible. This approach would require that the major union officials agree to modification or suspension of existing union contracts. A larger retained 'on the job' labor force would help keep overtime hours down towards the minimum possible, while retaining a higher level of union members who remain employed.
As Mayor Reed pointed out, San Jose is a great place to live. The city has good schools in safe neighborhoods, reasonable roads, expressways, and freeways, and the existence of 'clean industries'. It is appropriate to encourage 'Green Industries' to develop here and become permanent employers.
It is essential that San Jose improve its ability to develop and retain sustainable industrial enterprises here. While the process of issuing permits and licenses may be improved, what is very essential is the development of a labor force that meets the needs of local industry. Our youth, especially Latino youth, need to become aware that the era of entitlements is moving towards creation of a competitive opportunity environment, which favors those who prepare themselves to be productive, innovative, and reliable. It is essential that the members of the future work force be able to communicate in English because business, technology, science and our government use that language. Each ethnic group has the right to retain its own mother language, its related culture and the value system that permits one to have an ethnic identity. But do not expect the mainstream socio-economic forces to provide any entitlements.
As resident constituents you may expect civic services to not be as available as in those times when the local economy was vibrantly active. As city employees, you must recognize that the tax revenues realized are not sufficient to meet the ideal union contract aspirations. In good faith, and with the commonweal of all in mind, commit to focused full communication to achieve the best balance of resource usage that permit us all to keep on keeping on. This recession economy will end. We can help it end by believing in the changes that are possible and required. Keep in mind that our labor, goods and services produced here must be competitive on a global scale. We must all be committed to continuing to build the foundation for our future, especially to the benefit of our children and grandchildren. They deserve no less.
What Mayor Chuck Reed communicated in his State of The City of San Jose presentation during the 2010 Community Breakfast was realistic. With transparent government and a continued effort delivered in a spirit of good will, we will achieve what we believe. Essential changes are happening day by day.