Oliverio’s Budget Survey Results Are In

Hello Willow Glen Neighbor …

As you are aware, I put together a budget survey for residents of San Jose to partake in regarding San Jose’s 2009-2010 budget.

The City is facing an approximate $79 million shortfall. As a result, Mayor Reed, my colleagues and I will need to make cuts in order to balance the budget.

I closed the survey last night after having it open for the past three weeks.

I am pleased that my survey received over 700 responses. Thank you to those who engaged. It was long … but then our deficit is large, so the survey needed to at least attempt to grasp the entire budget.

Pierluigi Oliverio

And …. the envelope please … well … who knows if it was a helpful tool. You can join that debate separately … if you’d rather not discuss money.

Complete Results

The most helpful result was probably provided by question #6, which Oliverio draws particular attention to:

Please rank core city services as you view them as most important? 1 is the most important to you and 10 is the least important. You cannot use the same number twice.

• Police & Fire were #1 & #2. … 48% of respondents ranked Police as 1st on their list (and another 20% picked it second). Fire was first for 19% of those polled, and ranked second by 43%. Or, flip those numbers around; you get the idea.
• Streets & Sewers were a distant – mathematically separate but equal – Third, with about 18% selecting one or the other with third or fourth ranking.
• After that – in descending importance – Parks & Libraries, Disaster Preparedness, Planning & Code Enforcement, and lastly Recreational Trails. Sorry.

Of course, WGx is also happy to provide it’s standard totally unscientific interpretation of what a perceived majority of poll participants might be inclined to consider keeping if you wouldn’t mind:

Keep: Police Horses (and most other existing police services), community centers, school crossing guards, anti-graffiti programs, and fire stations (but people were in favor of axing fire administrative positions, a battalion chief, deputy chiefs, and arson investigators).

And, here’s the accompanying and equally incoherent analysis of what people seem to think maybe we could possibly live without:

Cut: Almost everything else in the poll (including the City’s Office of Emergency Services), but especially the PRNS Office on Aging, the Municipal Golf Courses, and the Mariachi Festival. Again, sorry.

Confused? Definitely read the Survey Results yourself.