Santa Paula's Budget Shortfall: Part 1

Santa Paula was doing well fiscally until the state of California took some of its money away. But did the state give Santa Paula an IOU? Will it pay back the city once it gets money from the Federal government? And if it does, will that bring Santa Paula's budget back to good health?  If anyone has definitive answers to these questions, please leave a comment. In the meantime, money needs to flow back into Santa Paula and the possible move to privatize trash collection, to possibly let more city workers go, and so on has many wondering if that will really solve the city's financial problems. The city manager was hired to do the best job possible and certainly has the support of Santa Paulans. But actions have unforeseeable consequences, as with PERC and the water recycling facility. With the present situation, selling off a well performing city service for short term gain may well invite unexpected complications that cause inefficiencies that are not there now, and in the long term be more costly. In fact,  privatizing the trash collection may be the first step in creating an unwanted familiar phenomenon. That is, by selling off or outsourcing one city service and its assets, the temptation to sell off another and then another will increase. It's human nature to keep going down the wrong road in the hopes that at some point it will be made right, not unlike the federal government's stimulus packages, which have created more debt and have yet to accomplish their intended goals.
Santa Paula has a diligent city government and is no doubt looking at every proposal submitted by independent trash haulers very carefully. But maybe Santa Paula should tighten its belt and wait this one out.  I don't think the city should shut down a department or sell off its assets just to bring in quick money, or to satisfy one group or another. It should do so only because it's best for Santa Paulans. The budget shortfall has brought many issues to light, and the city must regain people's confidence and dispel feelings of doubt. Santa Paula is rich in natural resources, history and spirit; rich in industrious, capable people who will revive the local economy, and by extension, restore the budget. Down the road, when the economy rebounds and Santa Paula's doing well again, the city's residents will look around and not recognize their own town because someone else owns it, and the city will no longer have an infrastructure to call its own. Should the city want to get any of it back, it's going to be much, much more expensive to buy from its future owners. At the community college where I teach, the school needed money and sold off a substantial part of the campus to a developer who built a golf driving range. It's right under every student's nose, and for many who lived through that whole affair, the resentment has never subsided. Recently, the college has considered buying back that same piece of property. But, what they sold it for is not even close to what they would have to now pay to get it back. So, finally, it's not about what unions want, or what private companies eager to get a contract with the city want, or what politicians want. What do the people who live right here in Santa Paula want? It's their tax dollars. It is their right to hang on to their city's assets and demand that their elected officials courageously serve their interests.