City Budget

Like cities across the country, Sacramento continues to be plagued by budget shortfalls. As a Sacramento City School Board Member, I am no stranger to closing budget gaps. At the City School District, we have had to pass seven balanced budgets in two years because state economic uncertainties changed the District’s budget outlook so frequently.

On the School Board, I have placed a freeze on all new spending of public bond dollars until a full audit is conducted in order to ensure that past dollars have been spent responsibly and in the best interest of the public.

As a Member of the City Council, I will demand the same level of accountability and transparency.

I will call for regular line by line budget and performance audits of every department to identify possible waste and opportunities for savings. We have to live within our means.
I will work with the County and neighboring cities to identify areas where we can consolidate services and operate more efficiently.
I will not stop at cuts, but will also look for opportunities for new revenues such as commercial waste disposal franchise agreements, and revenue from cell towers located on public space (which is currently not allocated to programs that benefit most City residents).
Further, we also need to look at our fee structure for services and utilities to ensure it is competitive, equitable and sensible. For example, a tiered utility rate for larger commercial users of City water is fair to impose on operations that consume millions of gallons of our water but pay very little in relative terms compared to smaller users.