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Printed
on Wed, March 26, 2003
San Jose Mercury News
San Jose Residents Rally to Head Off Budget Cuts
Hundreds of San Jose residents rallied at City Hall on Tuesday, urging Mayor Ron Gonzales and the city council to resist budget cuts they said would devastate a host of health care, gang prevention, education and anti-smoking programs.
The protest was a pre-emptive strike in what's expected to be a contentious budget fight this spring, as the council translates a projected $76 million deficit into cuts in services and programs the city can no longer afford. The council is just beginning to debate those cuts, but hundreds of activists and non-profit workers showed up to remind them that their decisions will have real-life effects.
"I urge you not to place the burden of this budget crisis on our most vulnerable citizens: children and the elderly,'' said Marybeth Affleck-Nacey, executive director of the Role Model Program, a mentoring program for children.
Gonzales triggered the rally with a proposal to change how San Jose spends millions of dollars the city receives from tobacco companies as part of a legal settlement in the late 1990s. The city doles out more than $10 million in tobacco money each year to dozens of non-profit groups, but the mayor has suggested using most of that to help balance what is believed to be the city's biggest deficit ever.
Non-profit workers warned that doing so would "devastate'' services for senior citizens and kids. They also implored city leaders not to reverse what was lauded as a progressive policy of spending the tobacco money on anti-smoking programs.
The tobacco money is currently divided among education, health and anti-smoking programs.
"Once you stop spending the tobacco settlement funds to fight tobacco addiction, you have, in effect, hitched the city's solvency to the profit margins of tobacco companies," said Carol Baker, a longtime volunteer for the American Cancer Society. "Cut these funds and I guarantee you will see cancer rates and tobacco-related deaths rise.''
Stepping up pressure on the council, dozens of social-service providers warned of similar dire results during a hearing that stretched more than three hours.
"Many non-profits are asking, 'Will we be able to continue to provide services? Will we have to close our doors?' '' said Jose Montes de Oca, executive director of the Alum Rock Counseling Center. Of the more than 300 protesters, the biggest contingent came from the Safe Place program, which enlists businesses, schools and agencies to provide a haven for at-risk children.
Gonzales said he doesn't relish the prospect of folding the tobacco money into the city's operating budget.
"We do this only because we have to,'' Gonzales said, referring to his proposal, which would have to be approved by the council. After one non-profit leader criticized him for "shutting out'' social-service organizations from the decision-making process, Gonzales said, "We look forward to working with all of you in the next couple months.''
Meanwhile, several leaders of arts groups complained about his proposal to change the way arts organizations are funded. The groups currently receive money from the hotel tax, which has fluctuated wildly along with the economy. Gonzales has suggested funding arts groups through the operating budget instead.
Arts leaders said, however, that they like having a separate funding source. Several council members opposed deciding the issue during this year's budget negotiations.
After months of closed-door deliberations by city staffers, Gonzales and the council are nearing the day of reckoning on painful budget decisions. Tuesday marked the official start of the public debate on dealing with the projected $76 million shortfall for the fiscal year starting in July -- more than 10 percent of the operating budget. The deficit is up more than $3 million from earlier this month, after the city received news that sales tax revenues had slipped even further than their already dim projections had predicted.
Also Tuesday, the council voted to suspend $10.3 million in capital projects across the city, from a new community center in Almaden Valley to street lighting at three elementary schools in East San Jose. Money for the projects was supposed to come out of the general operating budget, but officials decided to put them on hold until city finances rebound. The list of suspended capital projects can be viewed at www.ci.san- jose.ca.us/ cty_clk/ 3_25_03docs/ 03_25_03_ Attachment2.pdf.
The city manager must release his proposed budget May 1. The council is expected to vote on the final budget by mid-June.