“We have some projects downtown that we will probably have to delay to a following year. As of right now, our Redevelopment Agency is going to have to write a check to the state for $294,000,” Puckett said.
Costa Mesa was already bracing for a rough fiscal year because of a projected $3-million drop in sales tax revenues. No money was taken from the general fund.
Newport Beach officials were happy that they did not have any money stripped from their already-tight general fund.
“It’s a relief because you never know what the legislature is going to do at the last minute to reach a budget agreement,” said Newport Beach City Manager Homer Bludau.
Property tax and sales tax revenues make up the vast majority of both Costa Mesa’s and Newport Beach’s budgets, and proposals earlier in the state budget process tapped those funds as possible ways to overcome California’s big budget shortfall.
Proposition 1A, which was overwhelmingly passed by California voters four years ago, made it difficult for the state government to take local funds by requiring the approval of the governor and two-thirds of the legislature.
Still, the state’s $15 billion budget gap had to be dealt with somehow, and a variety of creative financing strategies that were used are being called fiscally irresponsible by some who think the state is pushing its problems into the future.
These methods include borrowing from future state lottery proceeds, collecting taxes earlier than usual and increasing spending on education and health care by a much smaller amount than is typically done to deal with inflation and population growth.
“No budget will be fixed within one budget cycle,” said Assemblyman Van Tran. “It will take several years.”
Tran called the budget a step in the right direction.
