Sonora City Council Learns State Is Facing $26 Billion Shortfall
Sonora, CA — At its annual retreat Tuesday the Sonora City Council learned the state of California is now looking at a $26 billion budgetary shortfall.
That word came from Steven Qualls, the Central Valley Regional Public Affairs Manager for the League of California Cities.
An upside to the meeting was confirmation from Qualls that the L.O.C.C. will be sponsoring a ballot measure for next year’s election that would eliminate the possibility of the state “taking” property tax, gasoline tax and other monies such as redevelopment funds from local governmental agencies. City Administrator Greg Applegate labels that action as “Robbing Peter to Pay Paul.”
Accoding to Applegate, “In addition the state has forced the City to adopt a resolution that approves the authorization of and execution of a delivery of a purchase and sales agreement related to Proposition 1A. What this is is where the state wanted to borrow property tax monies to balance their budget which in essance leaves us short of property tax funding. We were able to convince the state to pool through a bond purchase program dollars so they could front us the money so that we don’t lose the money this yeare.”
Written by bill.johnson@mlode.com
