City Releases Budget

By Teresa Rochester

What weighs as much as a big baby and worth $315.9 million?

The proposed 2000-2001 Santa Monica budget.

The 10-pound tome, which landed on desks Tuesday afternoon, calls for education, affordable housing, neighborhood livability, mobility and sustainability to be its biggest beneficiaries.

The proposed budget is actually less than the current record-setting $340 million budget, which bankrolled sizeable capital projects including the RAND property purchase and the new Public Safety Facility. The city's proposed operating budget, however, will grow 4.9 percent, an $163.5 million increase.

"The proposed budget responds to immediate Council and community priorities," said City Manager Susan McCarthy. "It sustains the quality of municipal services and addresses equities important to a community with a conscience, while adhering to responsible financial policies and retaining funding flexibility for the future."

In the wake of the school district's recent financial turmoil, education tops the funding priority list crafted earlier this year by the council after several days of public hearings. The district stands to receive approximately $2.237 million, augmenting the $4.9 million it receives from the city.

Specifically, the proposed education spending calls for:

· $200,000 to support a $10 million community fundraising effort to endow public school art and music programs, along with $772,600 for additional support to childcare subsidies, infant care-provider quality, the district's Enlace program, the Pico Partnership with Santa Monica College and the WISE America Reads intergenerational program.

·One-time funding to the tune of $265,000 is also called for to help fund transition support for Marine Park childcare, an entrepreneurial program for Olympic High School students and projects that expands the capacity of childcare facilities.

·The city also has the opportunity to designate up to $1 million in one-time funding which the district could use to bolster its bare-bones reserve.

The proposed budget also calls for significant funds to be earmarked for affordable housing in the midst of what the council and Rent Board have characterized as a crisis. Just over $17 million was directed toward affordable housing during the Mid-year Budget Review and the proposed 2000-2001 budget calls for an additional $16.5 million. The combined funds result in a one-time windfall of up to $25 million for the purchase and rehabilitation of approximately 229 housing units.

"This exceptional funding commitment, essential due to the rising housing market and loss of affordable housing units, is unlikely to be achieved again in subsequent years," McCarthy wrote in her budget message to the council.

She added that, "It will not be possible at all if challenges to the redevelopment program emerge, which would preclude going to the market or achieving timely repayment of advanced funds."

McCarthy was apparently referring to a college proposal to use some of the city's earthquake redevelopment district funds to rebuild some of the college's earthquake battered structures.

The council also specified quality of life and neighborhood livability as budget priorities. The proposed budget calls for continued funding of neighborhood organizations at $60,000 and the design and construction of a neighborhood park on Euclid Avenue for $517,304.

The budget also calls for:

· $4.711 million for the continued funding for the design and construction of the 6.4 acre Airport Park and an additional $2.396 million for the Virginia Avenue Park expansion project, along with $503,000 to replace the parks restrooms. The budget also earmarks $280,000 to design renovations for the Senior Recreation Center.

·The South Beach Neighborhood, which is home to several large luxury beachfront hotels, also stands to receive $154,000 for additional lighting and landscaping and increased police patrols.

The budget also addresses the growing problem of getting around the city. The proposed budget calls for $240,980 for a pilot program to deal with the summer beachfront traffic crunch.

In an effort to maintain the city's status as a cutting edge environmentally friendly, sustainable city the proposed budget calls for $960,00 to continue mitigating the effects of landfill and underground tanks. It also earmarks $500,000 to replace the aging, water-wasteful irrigation system on the Olympic Boulevard median and $150,000 to replace conventional red lights in traffic signals citywide with energy efficient fixtures.

The city's budget is being fueled by a booming economy that is not expected to keep pace with its current, according to the proposed budget. Deregulation in the telecommunications, natural gas and electric industries have slowed the growth rate of Utility Users' Taxes.

The bulk of the city's revenues come from property, sales and other taxes. The proposed budget predicts that revenue from property taxes will increase 5.8 percent to approximately $16.5 million, nearly $895,000 more than the current fiscal year. Sales taxes are expected to generate more than $25 million, which represents a $1.3 million or 4.7 percent increase.

Revenue from the utility users' tax is expected to reach nearly $24.75, an increase of $781,000 or 3.3 percent, and the city's bed tax could bring in more than $20 million, an increase of more than $2.25 million or 12.7 percent, due in part to the opening of two new luxury beach hotels.

The city is also expected to bring in $16.8 million in business, professional and occupation licenses, $1.3 million more than it did during the current fiscal year.

Copies of the budget are available from the City Finance Department at 1717 Fourth St. Suite 250 and a budget summary will be available on-line later this month.

City Finance Department staff will visit Farmer's Markets in Santa Monica on May 20, 21 and 24 to "talk budget' with residents. Comments on the budget may be submitted to the city on-line at santa-monica,org. Budget adoption is scheduled for Tuesday, June 20, at 7p.m.in the Council Chamber at City Hall.