The most crucial issue the next City Council must deal with is the large deficit in the City's budget. The current projected $10,000,000 budget deficit, and the projected recurring deficits in future budgets, comprise the biggest threat to the character and nature of Palo Alto. Without a balanced budget, it will be extremely difficult to finance the environmental plans, arts projects, transportation services, and other facilities that make Palo Alto a national model for other cities to emulate.

Our City's finances have suffered from a history of missed opportunities that has cost Palo Alto tens of thousands of dollars, if not more. How much revenue has been lost by allowing Alma Plaza and Edgewood Plaza to remain vacant? How much revenue is lost every time Mountain View, Menlo Park, or another community is able to attract a project that should have come to Palo Alto, but was lost due to the "Palo Alto Process." How much revenue is being lost as vacancies on University Avenue reach record highs? And we will never know how many projects have been lost because owners and developers just do not want to deal with Palo Alto's arduous, mystifying, and oftentimes infuriating review process in the first place. We can no longer simply dismiss such delays as part of the infamous Palo Alto Process. We must streamline our review procedures and introduce a "fast track" system that attracts businesses to Palo Alto. When appropriate, we should provide incentives for businesses to come to Palo Alto. We must realize that every dollar we do not collect in sales taxes or other sources of revenue, results in a direct increase in the budget deficit.

The current proposal to balance the budget also does not address the structural deficit built into the budget for future years. Currently, the Council is asking the City's workers to pay for about one-third of this year's deficit, and is making up the rest with service cuts, delaying scheduled maintenance of roads, and accounting transfers. None of these maneuvers cures the structural deficit. We need a City Council that will address the real issues we face, with new ideas and new perspectives.