…Since 2009, Stockton has cut $90 million from its budget, she said. The city has reduced its police force by 25%, its fire department by 30% and other city jobs by 40% but has not been able to get itself financially stable. And then, said Johnston, there was the housing bust…
The $64M question here is, “How much (needless) hiring did the City have to do (both sworn and non-sworn) SINCE its “1990’s era” contracts with its unions were hammered out for wages and benefits, pensions and retiree health subsidies?”
The $128M question here is, “Why did the City feel they had to do that much hiring??”
(Don’t ask the questions if you don’t already know the answer ;=))
Stockton’s ills are simply a repeat of Chula Vista’s, who now has roughly the same population. Chula Vista grew by about 60,000 new housing units during the millenium boom in the exact same way that Stockton did but has already massively laid off over two years ago. HOWEVER, Chula Vista is coastal, 4-9 miles from the int’l border and the western portion is 10-13 miles from dtn SD, one of CA’s major cities and job centers.
Stockton is an inland agricultural city and doesn’t have the same (more versatile) characteristics of Chula Vista. When a young “transplanted” Stockton family’s main breadwinner loses their employment (which was already likely 60+ miles away), they’re toast and have to relocate. In Chula Vista, this is NOT so. Most have established family nearby, some with family on both sides of the border and a much larger, closer and more diverse job market to choose from.
The sad legacy that we are left with in both cities (as well as many more in CA) is LESS employees to serve many THOUSANDS MORE residents.
Mello-Roos Bonds do NOT pay the wages, benefits and retirements of the city/county workers who are obliged by law to serve the residents of CFD’s who pay them. The bonds can ONLY be used for infrastructure and to fund schools.
The councils of BOTH these cities were VERY short-sighted when they made these backroom deals with developers to form the CFDs. They had stars in their eyes and all they could see was the teeter-fund residuals from new property tax coffers. It is now patently obvious that they gave no thought to HOW MANY MORE EMPLOYEES it would take to service their city if it grew by 100%+ over 5-8 years! In addition, did anyone in power in Stockton have ANY IDEA where all these new homeowners would WORK?? Did they think they would be able to pay their PITI and annual MR cleaning feedlots? Or even supervising the cleaning of feedlots?? LOL …
Gas is nearly $5 gal in SF and the peninsula and a little less than that in the east bay. Even a Lawrence Livermore Lab worker (35-40 mi one-way) living in Stockton would have to fill up 2-4 times per week in order to live in “cheap” Stockton and work in Livermore.
What were they thinking??? The answer is, they weren’t :=0
