#municipal-budgeting

#municipal-budgeting

Without the half-percent sales tax increase, which would generate an estimated $9 million per year for the city's general fund if voters approve it this November, Berkeley could face deeper cuts including shuttering a fire station, laying off police officers and reducing hours at city pools and recreation centers.

"We're all over the place here - this meeting should be suspended. We should get our ducks in a row and come back here and do this properly. I mean it's like a circus - you're saying one thing, and then you're going back. You're kind of changing your answers."

"Too often new developments don't come with the services and infrastructure they need. Our policy would get new or expanded GP surgeries up and running to serve new developments, right from the moment the first homes are sold."

A debt management plan (DMP) is a way to combine your unsecured debts into a more manageable single monthly bill. You'll typically get reduced interest rates compared to what you're currently paying thanks to negotiation by the agency you're working with.

"Yes, we're No. 1 in education. Yes, we're a safe state," said Chris Keohan, the spokesperson and consultant for the Taxpayers for an Affordable Massachusetts ballot committee. "But what does it tell you if we're losing people to states that are less safe, that have less level of education? It tells you that we're at a breaking point and something absolutely has to be done."

The Homekey project at 1237 San Antonio Road has been in the works since fall 2023, when city and state leaders touted its importance in addressing the local and regional housing crisis.

"We will continue his legacy," Mamdani said, referring to former Mayor Fiorella La Guardia's establishment of La Marqueta as a marketplace for affordable food in the 1930s.

Through Community Facilities Districts (CFD), Municipal Utility Districts (MUD), Public Improvement Districts (PID), Community Development Districts (CDD) and reimbursement districts (RD), builders can potentially shift infrastructure costs off their balance sheets and onto special districts that homebuyers ultimately absorb through property taxes without potentially adding debt to the builder's books.

John Kaehny has written and successfully lobbied for the passage of state and New York City laws related to government transparency and accountability, including the first open data law in the world in 2012.

Campaigner Aysha Hawcutt stated that residents were 'not anti-homes', but believed the Adlington plan was 'the wrong proposal in the wrong place'. She expressed pride in the community's resilience against the development threats.

Mamdani stated that the City Council's budget strategy effectively ensures this structural deficit will continue indefinitely, impacting vital city services and failing to solve deep financial problems.

Understanding the difference in purpose Unlike private businesses, which exist to make a profit, public institutions are designed to create impact - especially social and economic outcomes that benefit everyone, not just paying customers. A public agency doesn't measure its success in revenue or margins, but in how much it improves lives, builds equity and maintains public trust. This doesn't mean budgets and spending don't matter - they absolutely do - but money is not the goal. It's the tool.

The total proposed 2026 operating budget amounts to $18.9 billion, with 31 per cent being covered by property taxes and 24 per cent made up of federal and provincial funding. The rest is made up of smaller measures, including rate programs (12 per cent), transit fares (six per cent), and reserves (nine per cent). Chow submitted her budget proposal on Feb. 1, based on a city staff proposal put forward on Jan. 8.

"If we don't get what we need [in terms of extra government help] then a Section 114 Notice will come in, which is effective bankruptcy. We'd then get administrators come in, in effect - they'd then make a plan for where the money gets spent in Worcestershire. It would be a catastrophe. We're going to have to halt projects that were put into the budget by the previous administration, things that maybe were 'nice to have', but we can't afford them."

Despite some idealistic intentions, that framework is in fact what put Muni in the financial hole in the first place. Working from a scarcity mindset, namely trying to preserve an already pilfered service, is a losing battle. To guarantee the service that citizens and workers expect from a city like San Francisco requires a committed vision of the future, one that centers Muni as the public good that it is.