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Stanislaus County, CA March 5, 2002 Election
Smart Voter

CITY FINANCES

By Janice E. Keating

Candidate for Council Member, Chair 2; City of Modesto

This information is provided by the candidate
As Your Representative on the City Council, I Will Focus on Fiscal Responsibility
Stewardship of city finances is far and away the most important job of the city council. Fiscal responsibility and the balancing of expenditures with incomes should be the golden rule by which all council members serve. Unattended, government at all levels tends to become a bureaucratic money pit # and budgets swell year after year. It is the job of citizen representatives in government to counterbalance this tendency to spend wildly. It is the job of our citizen city council members to ensure that local government remains responsive to the people of Modesto.

A balanced budget was recently submitted to the council for approval. This landmark budget reflected months of work by city staff and citizens who labored countless hours to trim costs and produce a truly remarkable plan. As a citizen, I immersed myself in this process and was impressed by the openness and candor of our city management and staff who were always willing to share and always open to input. Unfortunately, this balanced budget was sabotaged at the last hour when, after the close of the public session, a number of council members engaged in an orgy of spending designed to increase their stature with public interest groups. This grab bag spending has sent the City back into the red to the tune of over $100,000, an amount that is likely to increase over the coming year.

This type fiscal irresponsibility and political opportunism needs to end with this election. The old "tax-and-spend more" attitude needs to be defeated.

Before considering any plan that would increase taxes on an already over-burdened public, we need to ensure that our city government is operating as efficiently as possible. Government should provide only those basic services necessary to maintain safety, order and public infrastructure and it should provide those services well. Any expenditure that does not fall within the basic responsibilities of government should be looked at with a very critical eye. The city should not attempt to duplicate services that are better provided by charitable, community and religious organizations.

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ca/stn Created from information supplied by the candidate: February 4, 2002 21:16
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