Now What? State Fiscal Crisis To Slap Elk Grove, Cosumnes Service District

If we are to believe the accuracy of the poll’s, all but one of the initiatives on today’s ballots, save one, are going down in flames.

If Gov. Schwarzenegger follows through on his threats leading up to today’s election, there are a few things we can count on.

First, it looks like the state will be raiding the general fund of local governments and districts statewide. If this comes to pass, the City of Elk Grove and the Cosumnes Community Service District can expect to fork over any spare cash on hand to the state.

Secondly, it looks like thousands of state workers will be laid off. With Elk Grove home to potentially hundreds of these furloughed state workers, sales and property tax will continue their steady drop.

We all know what the last 15 months have been like. Get prepared for more of the same.

While the polls are still open, it is hard to see any of the propositions save the one addressing legislator pay, passing. We will track the result tonight.

Nonetheless For Elk Grove, it all adds up that come next fiscal year, revenues will suffer and expenses must be cut. Unlike the Fed, state and local governments can’t crank up the presses and print more money.

So if they haven’t already done so, I would suggest Elk Grove City Manager Laura Gill and interim CCSD general manager Jeff Ramos sharpen their pencils and go through the budget line-by-line. Start with labor cost.

As previously suggested, a good start would be to cut the salaries of the highest paid managers, those with six digit income first. And yes, that should include all public safety officers, including the non-exempt ones.

If we determine that we don’t want to cut services vital to our “quality of life,” start cutting staff members. Or, perhaps offer employees furloughs or a collective option of temporarily reducing wages and benefits for everyone. Sorry no retroactivity either.

Undoubtedly public safety unions will scream and holler over any mention of furlough much less a pay reduction. Fair enough, that is their right.

Nonetheless, the city council and CCSD board will need to take a hard stance and remind these public safety employees that in most case their wages and benefits greatly exceed the very people they have sworn to serve and protect. It won’t hurt for the public know how much some of these employees are making while a great number of Elk Grove citizens struggle.

Sacrifices between the citizens and those who serve them must be shared.