The city's tax base was shrinking, and voters had recently reduced by 50 percent a utility tax that was the general fund's largest single source of revenue. Homeland security costs were skyrocketing after 9/11, as were rising workers' compensation, employee healthcare and pension obligations. The long-term practice of relying on one-time revenues and multimillion-dollar inter-fund transfers to pay for ongoing programs had helped the city in the revenue-abundant late 1990s. But in 2002, it became a major factor in the shocking announcement that the $368 million general fund had a structural deficit of $43 million, a figure that would exceed $102 million in just three years if nothing were done.
展开▼
