The Manteca City Council budget workshop for the proposed 2011-12 fiscal year spending document has been changed to Monday, March 12, at 2 p.m. in the council chambers at the Civic Center, 1001 W. Center St.
Imagine what Manteca would be like today with 11 less police officers and 12 less firefighters.
If voters had not passed the November 2006 Measure M public safety tax Manteca would have to do with as many as 23 less public safety personnel that the half cent sales tax funds.
Projections in 2006 for the current year anticipated $4.9 million in receipts from the half cent sales tax. Due to the Great Recession and a treat in consumer spending, the money projected this year from the restricted sales tax comes to $4.2 million. Had consumer spending continued with modest growth as the 2006 measure project, the city would he hiring four more police officers this year.
Instead the city is building up its Measure M reserves so they won’t lose four positions when funding runs out next year on a federal grant paying for four policy officers’ salaries and benefits. Once the grant expires, the Measure M funds will cover those salaries.
Another two positions are funded with a public safety endowment fund established through bonus bucks paid by developers for sewer allocation certainty. The interest on that money pays for salaries and benefits.
Take away the federal, grant, the Measure M sales tax and the public safety endowment funds and instead of 58 sworn officers, Manteca would have just 41 officers. Prior to the budget crisis, the department was authorized 72 positions.
Without the Measure M taxes, the loss of 12 firefighters would translate into one of Manteca’s three fire stations being shuttered during any 24-hour period.
Critics contend Measure M is somehow replacing general fund officers.
That is not the case. Language in the 2006 ballot measure requires public safety spending to stay at the same percentage of the general fund. In 2006, just fewer than 63 cents of every general fund dollar went to police and fire positions.
What happened is something that no one predicted - the Great Recession. As a result the general fund has been shrinking substantially. and since salaries and benefits for municipal employees consisted 80 percent of general fund expenditures, the city had no choice but to cut back on municipal workers.
The Measure M money can only be used to pay salary and benefits and basic personnel need such as equipment for officers and firefighters.
