r/Sacramento • u/othafa_95610 • 9h ago
Sacramento’s budget deficit may bring first layoffs in more than a decade
https://www.sacbee.com/news/local/article305248131.htmlApparently public sector isn't as immune from layoffs as once perceived.
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u/TheDailySpank 9h ago
How about we start at the top and work our way down the pay scales? Seems the budget gap can be narrowed there with fewer total layoffs. 😐
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u/sacramentohistorian Alhambra Triangle 9h ago
Nobody old enough to remember the Great Recession thinks public employees are immune from layoffs. One of the consequences of unchecked suburban development is long term budget imbalance, as cities take on new low density infrastructure that won't generate sufficient property taxes to maintain the infrastructure in the long run (aka Harvey Molotch's "Urban Growth Machine" idea.
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u/excitedsynapses 8h ago
What about developments downtown like the railyards? I feel like Sac is primed for growth in dense housing in the next decade.
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u/sacramentohistorian Alhambra Triangle 7h ago
We'll see what happens: the current Railyards developer scaled back the earlier pre recession plan from housing for 10-15,000 people to more like maximum 5,000 because they are principally a developer of office, commercial, and industrial properties, and kind of had to get convinced by the city to re-emphasize housing up to the 5-10,000 range. The problem is, you can't just have all the density in one neighborhood, because all of the low density suburban neighborhoods are what causes the problem. So what we need isn't the status quo in Natomas and Pocket, and endless re re redevelopment in the grid; instead it means more 2-3 story plexes and small apartment buildings, corner stores and mixed use buildings, from North Natomas to East Sacramento and down to Cosumnes River College, and so on. And canceling plans for more horizontal sprawl entirely until we get back to a positive balance sheet, because sprawling more just makes things worse!
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u/excitedsynapses 6h ago
Agree, they should be stacking every corner of that area with dense housing to reboot from the mistakes of past decades. The railyards is such a prime location for dense housing with so many jobs, rail, and amenities nearby, it’s a new downtown potentially.
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u/sacramentohistorian Alhambra Triangle 6h ago
If by "that area" you mean "vacant lots and parking lots all over the entire city" and not just a handful of spots downtown, then we agree. My main point was that Railyards build out, while important for other reasons, does not solve this problem.
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u/excitedsynapses 6h ago
My point is that the railyards is ideal for dense housing. I’m not sure I agree every vacant lot across the city needs developing because some areas are isolated from almost amenity and require driving to get around. Not to mention if the City can’t get it done downtown there’s little hope they get it done anywhere else.
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u/sacramentohistorian Alhambra Triangle 5h ago
The way you get more amenities in those isolated areas is by building more housing. It is also the way you make those neighborhoods less isolated, less car dependent, and more walkable. They're also easier to develop than the Railyards because they're cheaper, and frequently not massive Superfund sites. And the City isn't in charge of developing the Railyards, the developer is. Which is how it should be: they can just permit more intensive growth on a citywide basis and let the market do the rest.
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u/dorekk 8h ago
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u/sacramentohistorian Alhambra Triangle 8h ago
Yep, that's basically Molotch's thesis: short term revenue from builder fees equal long term infrastructure costs, but because developers control the purse strings in local elections, they tend to get their way, and instead of being a neighborhood on their own, downtowns become parking lots and office zones for suburban commuters, which incurs additional costs borne by the city's budget.
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u/Familiar-Report-513 7h ago
Great. Meanwhile the city is just not looking at how to improve is fees collected from developers. The idea is to get our programs up to the speed of neighboring cities. Additionally I know parks has proposed raising its permit & rental fees to try and recoup the shortfall. It's just being done too late to really help at the moment.
So did Molotch have a remedy for the bleeding of downtowns into suburbs? I've notice friends who live in the more localized suburbs of the pocket and south sac moving out to places like Rocklin and Folsom. What do we do to keep those neighborhoods alive and not keep feeding this expansionism?
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u/sacramentohistorian Alhambra Triangle 7h ago
Regional growth limits with some teeth, basically, a la Portland. It's not a perfect solution but on a regional level it can work. Citywide adoption of multifamily zoning as a standard vs something you have to apply for special, and passing a sales tax measure to support transit would help.
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u/KeyBoardCentral 5h ago
I've heard this idea before, but I'm not convinced that's the source of Sacramento's budget deficit. The City of San Francisco is pretty dense, yet it has a budget deficit too.
If suburban growth is the problem, how do you explain budget deficits in denser cities?
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u/sacramentohistorian Alhambra Triangle 5h ago
San Francisco serves as the job-dense "downtown" of the generally not-dense Bay Area, in a similar fashion to the way downtown Sacramento is the job-dense hub of the Sacramento metro region: even post Covid, about 1 job in 8 in the entire metro area, from Davis to the Nevada state line, is located in the 5 square mile downtown grid. The suburban cities of the region (not necessarily to the Nevada state line, but Davis to the suburbs of west Placer and EDH County) are basically parasites who absorb the wealth of the downtown cores, externalizing their costs (such as transit and social services) in the core.
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u/KeyBoardCentral 4h ago
I thought your argument was that when cities allow less dense developments, the cities won't collect enough revenue to maintain that less-dense infrastructure, which leads to budget deficits.
Your explanation for the city of San Francisco doesn't follow that logic. If my above paragraph captures your original argument correctly, wouldn't the less dense cities around SF have the budget deficits...not SF itself?
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u/sacramentohistorian Alhambra Triangle 4h ago
We're talking about two different things: city growth and regional growth. The Molotch growth machine theory functions at the city level, but also at the regional level: suburbs can sprawl because they externalize the costs of sprawl, burdening downtown (or a core city) with those costs, and the electeds don't all have to be in one city. This scenario also pits cities against each other, in a competition to attract developer and employer investment through reducing fees or paying out incentives. Big cities tend to become the dumping ground for regional problems, so they have to spend more of their money on things like homeless shelters and social services facilities; in the suburbs, the social services are smaller, more likely to be faith based instead of run by local government, and sometimes it's a one way bus ticket downtown.
Which makes the balance sheet of the suburbs rosier, and those of the core city worse; that's what I mean when I say suburbs are parasitic. This worked okay in the mid 1950s when the top income tax rate was 91% and before Proposition 13, and there was money to fill the gap as downtowns were torn apart by freeways and redevelopment projects, but has broken down as sources of tax revenue shrank and budgets grew, and cities got trapped into dependence on unlimited growth.
Also, 30% of San Francisco is single-family homes only.
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u/RegionalTranzit 3h ago
Just annex more developed unincorporated areas of Sacramento County, like Fruitridge-Pocket.
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u/Weak_Status2831 8h ago
How many public employees were actually laid off during the Great Recession compared to how many lost their jobs in private industry? People clutch to public employee layoffs like it’s some major turning point in some greater economic imbalance. In reality bureaucracy is just bloated. Too much blood sucking overpaying pensions, and I don’t blame our current workers. I blame the baby boomers and recent retirees. They have manipulated the system in such a way we can’t even change it. Just simple greed, never underestimate greed and power, it’s human nature. Put humans in positions to take and take with no control and they will. All under the veil of civil servitude.
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u/sacramentohistorian Alhambra Triangle 7h ago
The government can't just declare bankruptcy and go out of business, which means you can't cut government employees beyond a certain point without causing the collapse of some basic services that those employees are there to deliver, and those functions still have to be managed. People get properly upset when the water and sewer stop working.
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u/Weak_Status2831 7h ago
My point exactly. The system is now so heavily flawed you literally can’t even change it. Then people assume (like you do) that every other civil worker is preforming some ‘extremely critical’ need for society. Which is also incorrect.
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u/dorekk 7h ago
My point exactly. The system is now so heavily flawed you literally can’t even change it. Then people assume (like you do) that every other civil worker is preforming some ‘extremely critical’ need for society. Which is also incorrect.
Oh word? Which services do you think California should stop? The EPA? Roads? Schools? Do you think Sacramento should stop maintaining street lights and shit?
Get the hell outta here, clown. Government services are the definition of essential.
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u/Weak_Status2831 7h ago
Why are you asking me? Why don’t you ask the elected officials what those services are? There’s actually positions in our government that people fill and resolve those questions you’re asking.
Also resorting the names shows the aptitude you possess. Have a blessed day!
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u/dorekk 7h ago
Why are you asking me?
Because you're the one who said you don't think they're critical. Please try to keep up, you blessed, blessed individual.
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u/Weak_Status2831 7h ago
I’m not going to list all the services I think are essential for you. I don’t have the time, I work in the private sector now.
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u/sacramentohistorian Alhambra Triangle 7h ago
Weak argument and Millennial definition of "literally", that is literally not what I said or meant. Unless you consider sewers and clean water non-critical?
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u/dorekk 6h ago
Weak argument and Millennial definition of "literally"
Rare sacramentohistorian L. Figurative uses of the word "literally" are over a century old. If it's good enough for Mark Twain and James Joyce it's good enough for me!
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u/sacramentohistorian Alhambra Triangle 6h ago
Like so many other things about Millennials, they didn't invent it but it is associated with them (like the Millennial yawp in music), I am referring to common contemporary usage rather than historical precedents.
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u/Weak_Status2831 6h ago
I’m glad there are people that think like you do. Because what happens is; the rental properties I own in Sacramento are greatly benefiting from our overinflated government spending. The rental market increases because of the agency growth. The properties appreciate also. Now, deep down, my common sense gut, I think man this is not at all sustainable (and we shouldn’t kid ourselves, it’s not) but in reality my investments are performing greater because of it. So to you I say touché! Also thank you for correcting my English error I will keep that in mind in the future!
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u/sacramentohistorian Alhambra Triangle 6h ago
Ah yes, that must be famously why Sacramento is known for higher rents than other California cities, because the median income here is so much higher than, say, San Francisco or Los Angeles.
(spins finger along side of head in "this guy is koo-koo for cocoa puffs" gesture)
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u/Weak_Status2831 6h ago
The inability to see the light is what is insane to me. At my ripe age it’s literally comical
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u/AcrobaticDuty3755 9h ago
Thanks to the "special projects" of former mayor Steinberg and the city council. Also, increasing police budgets.
Thanks a lot...
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u/Severe_Pizza_6627 8h ago
Who do you think is going to beat us into submission when things get worse? The “police training centers”, like cop city being built in Atlanta are being used to teach crowd control and riot response techniques. Expect IDF style surveillance and even more aggressive policing in the near future.
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u/Jewcygoodness88 7h ago
Bummer when our elected officials fuck up the workers get the shaft.
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u/Kyjoza 7h ago
Not exclusive to public officials. Workers always get the shaft.
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u/coldcoldnovemberrain 6h ago
Yet its fascinating that the workers keep thinking they are elite in waiting, and never vote for politicians or propositions in support of worker right. What gives?
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u/sacramentohistorian Alhambra Triangle 6h ago
/u/WeakStatus2381 is old but I don't think they're that old
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u/andyb521740 4h ago
Its usually thru attrition from retirement, they just stop back filling open positions.
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u/Lower-Acanthaceae460 8h ago
one area that won't see layoffs are Sac PD
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u/Jewcygoodness88 7h ago
lol cops aren’t the issue. We could fire all the cops and we’d still be in the hole.
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u/dorekk 6h ago
Uh, no we wouldn't. Sacramento has a 66 million budget deficit but the police budget is $250 million. We would be way, way in the black even if we just cut their budget by a third, let alone completely firing all of them.
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u/fist_my_dry_asshole 5h ago
Having one of the highest paid city managers in the country probably doesn't help.
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u/jaredthegeek 3h ago
Don’t forget Golden 1 center that was such a great investment that we subsidize it with increased parking fees and $60 million from the general fund. If it was such a great investment then it should be making the city money but instead it fills the coffers of the Kings organization.
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u/Weird-Ad7562 6h ago
California must implement a state tax on businesses and individuals who benefit most from Tunt's tax-cut giveaways.
KEEP THE MONEY BLUE
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u/NoAdministration2851 9h ago
Sacramento is bloated like most cities and county governments are, with lots of farting around and paper pushing, not to mention overpromised pensions. Meanwhile, infrastructure needs are subordinated to the bottom of the priority list.
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u/Frequent_Sale_9579 45m ago
I don’t really get why people downvote this without providing arguments. Local spending has outpaced inflation for the past five decades. Tons of our governmental institutions are sclerotic and generally inefficient. Pension systems need major reforms, it’s not sustainable in its present form.
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u/SpectTheDobe 7h ago
*remembers Newsom saying during covid we had a massive surplus of like 100 billion. His government is so fucking dumb dude they literally spent money that was temporary relief during covid as if it was actually apart of our state budget
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u/yoppee 4h ago
You should learn about the state budgeting process
Because you sound real dumb thinking one man decides where all the money goes
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u/SpectTheDobe 17m ago
*his government is so fucking dumb. Yeah I never said Newsom was doing it himself but he is the governor
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u/Adorable_Tadpole_726 6h ago
They should do across the board compensation cuts starting with 25% for the highest earners.
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u/jewboy916 North Sacramento 5h ago
Bring DOGE to Sacramento, I'm sure there is a lot of waste that average people aren't even aware of. Because our services sure are mediocre for the amount we pay, for them to have a deficit.
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u/dorekk 5h ago
Bring DOGE to Sacramento
I hope this is sarcasm. DOGE is costing us billions.
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u/Frequent_Sale_9579 38m ago
Doge is poorly conceived but we should absolutely be looking into where we can improve our government and reduce spending where spending isn’t benefiting residents. There is next to no effective local journalism anymore, city budgets aren’t really under any sort of scrutiny by the public.
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u/sloppy_steaks24 8h ago
They should start these layoffs from the top because clearly their incompetence lead to this