Financial Stability

By Bill Widmer

Spend judiciously, invest in infrastructure not operational growth and tax sparingly.

We now need to focus on improvements to our infrastructure. Our drainage channels need upgrading and repairs, our streets need to be made safer for vehicles, bicyclist and pedestrians and our Park facilities need attention and updating. We have the funds to do this provided we invest carefully. We need to look at each project, validate the need and determine the timing of the repairs (this year, next or 2017). Once convinced of the need and timing we need to determine if the solution is a local, regional or state-wide issue whereby we could potentially get financial assistance or grants rather than bear the full cost ourselves. Good examples of this would be the drainage system, bike paths and in the Park's Carriage House restoration project.

While on the subject of construction you probably have heard that shortly the Town will move into the final stages of its Civic Center project. This entails the construction of a new Library, Town Hall and Town Commons Area. The project will be constructed in the same site but will involve new routing of the streets in the area as well as building of the two new facilities. These are important projects for the Town and it is important to note that one facility, the Library will be designed and constructed with pre-existing tax funds. These have been accumulating over the years and are a portion of the property taxes we already pay at a Prop13 designated rate. Today the fund is over $7M and growing by almost $1M per year. This fund can only be used for library-related or approved activities and if unused could be at risk to be reallocated to other library projects in the County. I believe we should ensure this money stays in Atherton and a new facility with modern equipment, e-books and rooms for use by the residents makes good sense for us all.

The new Town Hall is sorely needed and will provide a consolidated home for our Town staff including Administration, PD, Building and Planning Departments and Public Works operations including full time staff as well as site-located contractors. This project has been moving forward for a number of years and has always been designated as something which will be built using private donations. In 2012, a ballot measure was passed ensuring that no tax dollars would be used for the design and construction of this project. As such this Civic Center project will be built with no additional taxes. As such this is a project we can all rally behind and press forward on.

Finally on the subject of taxes. The Town has, over the last three years, seen a significant rise in property tax revenues. This, coupled with steps taken during my first term have given rise to the surpluses we have already discussed elsewhere on this website. The current Town budget projections show that revenues will continue to rise by about 10% over the next 5 years, but alarmingly it also projects a corresponding rise in costs by double that amount leading to the call for clamping down on operational costs. If successful our surplus budget reserves should grow and allow the Council to consider not fully assessing the Parcel Tax or other taxes in the future. This year, I supported the notion that the Council not assess the full Parcel Tax in this coming year due to the surplus values we had shown. This was not supported by my colleagues at this time however, this will be an annual consideration which should gain support.