SANTA PAULA : Decline in City’s Budget to Continue

This year’s budget for the city of Santa Paula has dropped $1 million compared to last year, and it is expected to drop another $600,000 next year.

If this trend continues, many city services will suffer and residents may be deprived of having their own 911 dispatchers and clean streets, City Manager Arnold Dowdy said.

“If the amount of revenues doesn’t increase, it’s going to get harder and harder to do the things that citizens want us to do,” Dowdy said. “There are numerous things that need to be done in the city but we already are unable to afford them.”

In the next six years, the city will need an estimated $30 million to spend on capital improvements such as providing housing and equipment for the police and fire departments and improving and maintaining the city’s parks, buildings and streets, Dowdy said.

Of that $30 million, the 1995-96 budget allows the city to spend only $1.9 million. And the projected budget for 1996-97 estimates that only $705,000 will be spent on capital improvements.

After a two-hour study session Monday, the City Council approved the $12.2-million budget for 1995-96 and a $11.6-million budget for 1996-97.

The average yearly budget for Santa Paula has remained around $11 million over the last five years, Dowdy said. The 1994-95 budget was $13.2 million, partly because the city had saved about $400,000 to renovate the sewer system, he said.

City officials hope to beef up future revenues by attracting industries that would expand the tax base and provide jobs. Dowdy said the city is working with approximately 12 industrial companies who are considering moving to Santa Paula.