Cotati poised to adopt balanced budget

For the second year running, Cotati is looking to adopt a balanced budget for the next fiscal year, setting itself apart at a time when every other Sonoma County city is wrestling with a deficit.

The $4.2 million budget starting in July would be over the top on the strength of income from a half-cent city sales tax residents approved last year.

In addition, between 2007 and 2010, the city reduced spending by 24 percent and staff by 33 percent, savings that have underpinned its fiscal progress.

Officials say that with the structural deficit eliminated, projections show that the city's budget will be balanced through the next seven fiscal cycles, even after the sales tax expires in four years.

"The structural deficit issue is something that really cannot be overstated," Mayor Janet Orchard said at a Wednesday budget workshop. "What an achievement that is."

Reflecting its upward turn, the budget adds 2-? staff positions. And it includes spending for long deferred street and parks maintenance as well as repairs to City Hall's roof, which was budgeted for last year but not done.

It holds the line on police department spending at about $2.5 million. The department will have 10 sworn personnel, the same number as last year and down four officers from 2008.

The Measure A tax, while bringing in considerably less than expected, is projected to raise $480,000 next year. Original projections, brought low by the stalled economy, were that it would raise $600,000 to $900,000 a year.

Still, the budget that City Manager Dianne Thompson is proposing outlines $80,000 more in revenue than expenditures, with a balance of $953,000 left over at year's end.

That remains a far different picture than two years ago, when the city was staggering under the weight of a deficit that peaked at $530,000.

Cotati's success with a sales tax measure was followed by Rohnert Park, which passed its own later in the year. But that city is still facing a $2 million projected deficit.

Healdsburg is confronting a $590,000 deficit and officials have commissioned a survey to gauge support for its own tax measure.

The council plans to vote on the budget at its meeting next Wednesday.