Bringing New Revenue to Burlingame

By Terry Nagel

Our city is passionate about economic development. To bring in more revenues, we've been aggressively courting businesses and it's working. Between 2009-10 and 2010-11, our sales tax revenues have increased 28 percent and our income from our local hotel tax has risen 29 percent. A number of new businesses have recently opened in Burlingame, including Nissan.

Much of the credit goes to our excellent economic development coordinator, Patricia Love, who helps attract new businesses and serves as an ambassador to existing businesses. If you visit Burlingame Avenue or Broadway, you will see that our local stores and restaurants are thriving, and a recent San Mateo County Times article cited our growing reputation as a mecca for tech startups. A major biotech "Millennium" project is planned for the former drive-in space near the bay.

To make it easy for people to build new projects in Burlingame, our Community Development director arranges one-stop meetings that allow developers to get all their questions answered by various departments at one time. In addition, as Mayor, I am communicating with the executive directors of our hotels and largest businesses to make sure our city is meeting their needs. I'm also sharing a handout called "Try Transit" that encourages local workers to use public transportation with free tickets and cash payments to those who carpool. I recently welcomed a delegation of CEOs from China and encouraged them to consider doing business here.

We're also seeking grants. Recently Burlingame was awarded $560,000 for two new bicycle paths and our new downtown streetscape. Burlingame Avenue will be completely upgraded in 2012, and we're actively seeking input from residents and businesses regarding their ideas.

It wasn't always like this. For many years, Burlingame balanced its budget one year at a time. About a year ago, we decided to take a long-range look at our past budgets and began forecasting future budgets on a six-year cycle. We discovered that our revenues during the past 10 years have increased an average of 2 percent per year. Going forward, we are banking any revenues greater than 2 percent in four reserves: an economic stability reserve (to cushion against future ups and downs in revenues so we don't have to cut jobs and services), a catastrophic reserve (to help during major disasters such as acts of terrorism), an unfunded liabilities reserve (to cover retiree medical costs) and a contingency reserve.

The advantage of this conservative approach is that we will be able to withstand the roller-coaster ride of the economy; we won't have to cut staff and services based on a single year's budget. Once these reserves are funded by a set amount each year, we will set aside funds for long-range capital improvement projects, such as a new Recreation Center.

In setting budget priorities, I focus on maintaining services to the public and the jobs of those who provide them. We have not laid off a single city employee during the past five years. We have downsized government through attrition and by working collaboratively with employees and getting them to agree to contribute more during these difficult economic times. We have been able to make government more efficient and less costly by sharing services and management with other cities, and we are exploring more ways to do so. Citizens are very engaged in the budget process and offer many helpful ideas.