Another Shortfall Forces Oxnard to Cut Budget Again

The Oxnard City Council made more budget cuts this week after disclosing a shortfall of almost $350,000 in its estimate of revenue for the 1989-90 fiscal year.

The official announcement of the revenue shortage came Tuesday in a midyear financial report that adjusts revenue according, in part, to receipts from the first six months of the fiscal year.

“No matter what we do, we get all these shortfalls that keep coming in to us,” Councilwoman Ann Johs said. “It’s very discouraging.”

After re-evaluating estimates of other revenue, the Oxnard budget department calculated that the net effect is a $346,960 decrease in revenue expected during the current year, said Bill Mayer, management and budget director.

After much discussion, the City Council cut $317,000, including $51,000 in travel and training funds for city employees.

With those savings added to money saved from cutbacks in the fall, the city again balanced this year’s budget.

The budget decrease is primarily the result of a change in the revenue expected from a franchise tax the city receives from the Southern California Gas Co.

The gas company has advised the city that revenue is down from one of its major gas customers, Southern California Edison, because that company has begun buying gas from gas companies elsewhere to avoid paying the Oxnard franchise tax.

Meanwhile, city officials are trying to determine whether they can impose the tax on Southern California Edison anyway because the gas, while bought outside of city limits, is delivered to the electric company by way of lines in the city right of way.

This week’s shortfall comes just months after the City Council discovered that estimates of revenue for the 1988-89 fiscal year were $2 million too high.