Petaluma adopts austere spending plan for 2014-15

Petaluma residents and employees can expect another year of relative austerity as the City Council on Monday night tentatively approved a general fund spending plan only slightly larger than a year ago.

The extra revenue - $1.2 million anticipated from an increase in sales taxes and about $210,000 from higher property taxes - is matched by additional spending, nearly all on wages and benefits costs for city workers.

The council adopted the 2014-15 budget unanimously. It will formally vote to approve the $39.5 million general fund budget at its June 2 meeting.

Monday's vote also underscores the city's case for a potential sales-tax increase on the November ballot. City leaders have said budget cuts over the past six years aren't enough to keep up with rising expenses and are expected to ask residents to approve an increase of as much as 1 percent.

Although the budget has been discussed at three public meetings, few members of the public have commented on the city's spending priorities. Two residents Monday urged the council to be watchful of spending on public safety at the expense of other city services, including roads.

The budget is "part of a decades-long train wreck," said Richard Braun.

"Are new taxes a solution?" he asked, saying he didn't think there is an appetite for feeding more taxes toward "insatiable" spending.

Finance Director Bill Mushallo said general fund revenues are expected to increase this year by almost $2.7 million, although about $1.2 million of that isn't actually new income but part of a different cost-allocation method.

Spending is expected to rise by $2.65 million, just over $1 million of which is because of a change in accounting method that moved some salaries into the general fund budget.

Seventy-nine percent of the general fund, which pays for most city operations and where most of the council's discretionary spending occurs, is spent on employee salaries and benefits. The police and fire departments budgets account for 72 percent of general fund spending.

About $800,000 was carried over from last year's budget.

The spending plan doesn't draw down on reserves, which are at $2.3 million. That amount is a far cry from near-depletion of reserves a few years ago, but still only a third of the council's rainy-day savings goal.

Long-term financial plans don't foresee raises for city workers except anticipated step increases as employees gain seniority.

The budget allocates about $100,000 to the police department from an anticipated payment from the Graton Rancheria casino in Rohnert Park. Casino operators agreed to pay local jurisdictions for some of the problems the massive gambling hall causes in traffic and crime.

UPDATED: Please read and follow our commenting policy:
  • This is a family newspaper, please use a kind and respectful tone.
  • No profanity, hate speech or personal attacks. No off-topic remarks.
  • No disinformation about current events.
  • We will remove any comments — or commenters — that do not follow this commenting policy.