OXNARD, Calif. – The Oxnard City Council and Housing Authority adopted a Fiscal Year 2021-22 Operating and Capital Improvement Budget of $632,752,937 on June 30, 2021, which includes the General Fund group, landscape maintenance and community facilities district funds, special revenue funds, assessment district funds, enterprise funds, internal service funds and Housing Authority funds.
The City’s General Fund revenues for the budget year are projected at $201.2 million. This is 30 percent greater than for Fiscal Year 2020-21 due to revenue from Measure E, which will support basic City services such as public safety, parks, community development, cultural and community services, road maintenance and administration provided through the General Fund.
“I’m excited for the community to see the restoration of many services and programs in the year ahead,” said Mayor John C. Zaragoza. “This is the first of three restoration budgets, and the City Council unanimously supports investing in Oxnard’s streets and landscaping, trees, and parks maintenance. Change will not happen overnight, but we are on the road to steady progress.”
The Fiscal Year 2021-22 budget, which begins July 1, will focus on restoring services such as street paving; landscaping and maintenance of parks, trees, and medians; restoring programs for youth and seniors that were cut over the past ten years; and restoring the Neighborhood Policing Team.
Through Measure E, the City plans to invest:
- $14.6 million a year for three years for improving Oxnard’s streets and alleys.
- $5.6 million for parks, medians and trees maintenance.
- $8.8 million in Fiscal Year 2021-22 to support projects in the City’s Capital Improvement Program (CIP), which includes street improvements.
- $3 million investment in Cultural and Community services to restore and enhance youth and senior services programs, the Durley Park Youth Center, the Colonia Basketball Gym hours, Meet-up Clean-ups, and City Corps Town Keeping efforts, all of which were previously reduced.
- $8 million for the Police Department to maintain 9-1-1 response times and take steps to begin the restoration of the Neighborhood Policing Team.
- Nearly $6 million for the Fire Department, which includes $1.35 million to hold a fire academy with 21 recruits in order to catch up on staffing needs.
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The only reason that they can boast of a positive budget is the Measure E bailout, by the voters. Not from good stewardship, or fiscal management, but on the backs of working-class families, whose own budgets are taking a heavy hit, with a 16.2% increase in the sales tax, 3% now goes into the Oxnard City Hall coffers, in the General “Slush” Fund.
The legally questionable use of videos by City Council, weighing in heavily on a ballot measure, glossy flyers, safety union generous contributions, partial truths, misleading title to the measure, and outright misinformation, which duped the voters into this incredible tax hike.
You cannot fix fiscal mismanagement by throwing more money at the problem. The bad behavior of overspending, and as a result, overtaxing the citizens, has not changed, but rather encouraged them to continue down this disastrous path.
The proposed Fiscal Year 21-22 budget includes many additional administrative staff, more multi-million dollar projects, which may score political points with the voters, while our infrastructure crumbles. Good governance is not bragging about an embarrassing bailout, but rather making sensible investments in our future, like our roads, and alleys, rather than fighting in court to not do what is needed, and shown by the passage of Measure N, by the voters. TIme will tell if they can use the bonus money to good use, or squander it as usual.
Lets hope the city leaders recognize that south Oxnard is in dire need of cleanup and improvements. There is more to Oxnard than the Collection!
With $55M annually from Measure E and one time gifts of $59.5M from the America Rescue Plan and another $1.4M from the CARES act to the Oxnard public safety for doing nothing but breathing air, how difficult can it be to develop a positive budget?