Editorials

How to make up a $1.43 million Berkeley General Fund shortfall caused by the 2003-04 state budget? That’s the gloomy and wholly expected task the Berkeley City Council will take up at tonight’s regular 7:30 p.m. meeting at the Old City Hall. 

Also on the agenda will be a public hearing on changes in the city’s Rental Housing Safety Program fees and on the proposed building of a Sprint Wireless Communication Facility (to include three rooftop antennas) on the corner of Shattuck Avenue and Cedar Street. Council also plans to discuss two items held over from its Sept. 9 meeting: a proposed study on the environmental effects of the use of the Aquatic Park Lagoon by the Berkeley High Women’s Crew team, and a second look at the defeated Olds-Hawley resolution calling for an inquiry into the deaths of all American citizens in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza over the past three years. 

The city officials knew a general fund gap was imminent this fiscal year, the only question being how large it would be. The council finally learned the exact size of it during a public workshop session held with City Manager Weldon Rucker and Budget Manager Paul Navazio before last week’s Council meeting. 

Rucker and Navazio have recommended that the city make up the deficit from three quarters of a million unspent dollars carried over from last year’s budget and a quarter of a million unallocated dollars from this year’s increase in parking fees. 

The two managers have also recommended close to a half million dollars in actual budget cuts, the most significant being elimination of an unfilled assistant fire chief’s position and a $50,500 cut in police overtime. 

At the same working session last week, Council also received long-term bad news from its budget experts. Unless Council enacts some combination of tax increases or spending cuts or the state economic picture magically brightens, Berkeley can expect a projected structural deficit of $8 million to $10 million next year, growing $2 million to $3 million per year . 

EMH Market Research firm of Sacramento is already conducting a City of Berkeley-ordered survey of 400 Berkeley registered voters to assess support for a possible city bond measure next spring to make up part of this deficit. Council expects the results of the survey by early October, and plans to discuss a possible spring bond measure during its first meeting in November.