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Santa Clara County, CA November 7, 2006 Election
Smart Voter

Balanced Budget

By Heidi Pham

Candidate for Council Member; City of Milpitas

This information is provided by the candidate
The city council must balance the budget without reducing services to our citizens.
For three years, the city council has used accounting tricks to balance the budget. This year, they planned to move $4.5M from the Redevelopment Agency to the City to balance the budget. Fortunately, unexpected extra revenues arrived that made that move unnecessary. However, there remains an ongoing structural deficit in the City's budget which means that the city will need another $5M next year to balance the budget. And another $5M in 2008. In the future, we must pay that money back. But how? The city will need another $5 million next year to balance the budget and another in 2008. When will we ever pay back the money to the RDA?

We must review all aspects of the budget to ensure we are providing services efficiently to our residents. We must review the salary and benefits structure of the city budget to ensure we are not paying above our means. With community input, I will make the tough choices required to balance the budget.

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ca/scl Created from information supplied by the candidate: November 1, 2006 18:30
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