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Health & Fitness

Strong Cities, Strong State?

State budget changes are impacting local government agencies.

As the Foster City Council we can now turn towards Sacramento to see what lawmakers are doing to draw closer to completing the State budget and what will be the impacts on local government. I attended an event last week called Legislative Action Days sponsored by the League of California Cities with 5 other San Mateo County elected officials. This annual event usually centers around the Governor’s May budget revise. This two day event gave us an opportunity to listen to key legislators discuss their perspectives on the state budget and meet personally with lawmakers. The message to all of us was really about Redevelopment.

As you may be aware, the League has aggressively fought Governor Brown’s proposal to eliminate redevelopment agencies. Those of us who went to Sacramento made it a point to visit lawmakers and encouraged some compromise with regards to redevelopment instead of just eliminating it. These particular funds are local government’s most effective tool to create jobs, eliminate neighborhood blight, improve infrastructure, build affordable housing and develop infill properties.  It would prove to be a reckless move to just toss it away. Foster City’s redevelopment funds have been key to some of the new projects around the city.

At the end of the day, the talk around town was reform redevelopment don’t toss it out, as the Governor is proposing. We had appointments to see Assemblyman Jerry Hill and Senator Leland Yee to discuss those issues that can impact local agencies. Assemblyman Hill was very gracious in giving of his time to answer questions on redevelopment, pension reform and various bills in front of the legislators. Senator Yee on the other hand welcomed us and let a staff member of his answer any questions we had. That was disappointing !

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Of course public pension reform has emerged as a major issue as state and local agencies continue adjusting to declining revenues and volatile financial markets. It is obvious that public agencies cannot continue to offer the irresponsible level of pension benefits that have been contracted in the past. This is something that all cities are addressing in one way or another.

As I mentioned to effectively attack our city’s structural deficit, pension reform is an important component in the process of getting to a balanced budget.  The state legislators and the Governor need to stand up and include pension reform as a major component in their process to turn things around in California. It can’t be business as usual and both political parties and unions need to get a grip and work together on behalf of the people they serve.  Governor Brown should understand the plight of city officials since he was the Mayor of Oakland. He knows full well the impact of irresponsible governing from the state level and the impacts on our cities. So what is he waiting for in the push for change?

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