$3.5 Million: Union City Budget Deficit

UNION CITY, CA — Union City is facing an ongoing budget deficit of $3.5 million per year. Thisproblem began back in June 2017 when the City Council passed a two-year budget with asignificant deficit to the General Fund. Increases in contractual services, the rising cost ofproviding city services and employee pension obligations have all contributed to the budget deficit. Since that time, the City has made significant budget cuts, which include:

• $1.2 million in spending cuts in Fiscal Year 2017/2018
• $600,000 in additional spending cuts in Fiscal Year 2018/2019
• Hiring freezes of some positions
• No employee Cost of Living Adjustments (COLAs) were given in past labor negotiation.

These budget cuts have placed a serious strain on the City’s ability to maintain city services,
including:
• Significant cuts to enforcement of city code violations that cause neighborhood blight,
such as abandoned vehicles, graffiti and illegal garbage
• Elimination of community policing services that help address systemic crime, such as
neighborhood outreach, community-oriented problem solving, homeless encampments
abatement
• Elimination of the School Safety Resource Program in June 2019

Union City residents were given an option to help maintain city services through support for
Measures DD and EE in November 2018. Measure DD, a Cannabis Business Tax, was passed
by voters and is expected to bring in $1.4 million in revenue to help maintain city services. The
voters did not pass Measure EE, which was a Charter City measure with an enhanced Real
Property Transfer Tax that would have raised an additional $5 million annually in revenue to
help maintain city services.

As a result, the City Council in the process of considering cuts of $3.5 million per year to city
services in order to balance the budget the next two years.

We need the community’s input on which services to cut in order to balance the budget. Takeour survey and also attend an important City Council Study Session about the budget on Tuesday, April 23 at 5 p.m. in the City Council Chambers.

— Announcement from City of Union City

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