Money is the top concern for local elected officials and candidates in 2009. At least today, after months of waiting, they have some idea how much money Sacramento will send to Glendale. They even have some idea of how much money Washington will send to Sacramento.
The big concern for the rest of us:Where will Washington be getting the money?
Some candidates and office holders visited the Glendale News Press open house yesterday, including city council incumbent Ara Najarian. Najarian, a current Metropolitan Transit Authority member, believes Glendale should work to obtain as much federal stimulus money coming to California as it can, including funds for transit projects. The state budget just passed cut $460 million from public transit. Streetsblog LA commented
…not one legislator from Los Angeles or any other metropolis was willing to stand up for transit operating funds. As we’ve already discussed, the new budget reduces the state operations subsidy for transit to $0 for the foreseeable future, which could force Metro to cut up to 160,000 hours of bus service.
Community college board candidate Ann Ransford was also at the open house. She confirmed that budget cutbacks were a top concern for the college as they are now for our schools and city. School board member Mary Boger, who was also there, indignantly pointed out that California legislators expect Glendale and other school districts to operate based on the funds given to them, without deficit spending or additional taxes. The Glendale Unified School District has managed its funding to date, and isn’t in dire straits as some school districts are.
School board incumbent Greg Krikorian forwarded this information from today’s California School Board Association Bulletin: Current year Proposition 98 appropriations will be cut by $5.9 billion, with about $2.3 billion coming from program reductions and partial cost-of-living adjustment. The 2009-2010 year budget will eliminate the estimated 5.02 percent statutory cost-of-living adjustment, further reduce Proposition 98 spending levels by $530 million, and eliminate the $114.2 million High Priority Schools Grant Program.