Wildomar To Outline $1.8 Million In Budget Cuts During July 27 City Council Meeting

Painful budget cuts for Wildomar will be presented during the July 27 City Council meeting.

During Wednesday night’s regularly scheduled City Council meeting, City Manager Frank Oviedo committed to bring back to council the line-item slashes.

Oviedo and Assistant City Manager Gary Nordquist are tasked with skimming $1.8 million out of the 2011-12 fiscal-year budget as a result of cuts in Sacramento last month. As part of the state budget package Governor Jerry Brown signed into law June 30, $130 million in vehicle license fee revenues were chopped out of city budgets statewide.

New cities have traditionally been allotted an increased revenue share during their first years of incorporation from vehicle license fees to help them get off the ground, so Wildomar was hit particularly hard by last month's news. New cities plan incorporation based on revenues, and the June 30 decision was an unforeseen blow.

Four new cities in Riverside County -- including Wildomar -- are collectively facing nearly $15 million in revenue losses because of the last-minute state budget provision.

The city is lobbying to recover some or all of the revenues, but meantime is forced to make the difficult cuts.

Contract services such as law enforcement, fire, legal , IT, and animal control are being penciled for possible reductions. The City Hall lease and staff benefits’ packages, among other expenditures, are also under the microscope.