La Canada Flintridge Faced With $100,000 Shortfall in Revenue
The La Canada Flintridge City Council will have to cut $100,000 from city services or increase fees for them during this year’s budget hearings, City Manager Donald Otterman said.
Otterman said at a council meeting Monday that, for the first time in the city’s history, he will present an unbalanced budget in which revenue is short of expenditures. He said a decrease in sales tax revenue and declining interest rates on reserves, the city’s two largest sources of revenue, contributed to the shortfall for the 1988-89 fiscal year.
He also said that, so far, the budget includes no provisions for salary increases, another issue the council must address.
“I squeezed every nickel I could,” Otterman said. “There are definitely some policy decisions that have to be made by the council.”
He said he will make some recommendations to the council, including reducing the level of patrols by the Sheriff’s Department, increasing fees for services and establishing a business license fee.
The budget was available for council members Wednesday. It must be adopted by June 30. Public hearings have been scheduled from 2 to 5:30 p.m. Tuesday and 8 a.m. June 16 at the city offices.
The final version of the budget will be voted on at the regular council meeting scheduled at 7 p.m. June 20 at Descanso Gardens.
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