Councilmember Andersen manages our town resources effectively.
- I serve on the Town Finance Committee and make recommendations concerning expenditures and the investment of Town funds. The town spends and invests its funds carefully and wisely.
- Danville's current budget plans for Town program expenditures to be $19.2 million this year. The largest categories in the budget are: $5.6 million for police services; $4.7 million for Maintenance; $3.1 million for Development Services and $2.3 million for Parks and Recreation. 25% of the budget, or $4.8 million, is kept in reserves.
- Danville is run very efficiently. This year we will have approximately 115 employees to serve our population of close to 43,000. Back in 1991 we had 122 employees to serve our then population of 33,000 residents.
- Planned capital improvements this year for the Town come to approximately $6.4 million. Because we keep healthy reserves and use our funds prudently, we are able to afford new projects such as the replacement of the building at Oak Hill Park with a new community center, replace aging park playground equipment and will be formulating a plan to create and link additional trails. A complete list of projects can be found at: http://www.ci.danville.ca.us/default.asp?serviceid1=412&Frame=L1
- Per capita, our spending is much lower than our neighboring cities. In a comparison made last year it was found that Danville spends considerably less per resident, yet we provide an exceptional quality of life to our citizens. Danville was spending approximately $437 per resident. In contrast, Pleasanton spent $1974, Dublin $1058, San Ramon $938 and Livermore $836.
- During the State budget negotiations this past summer Danville took an active role in lobbying legislators, the Governor and working with the League of California Cities to ensure that a deal was reached so that Town revenue would be protected from future State raids by a Constitutional Amendment (Prop 1A on the November Ballot).
- Because of our fiscal responsibility we have been able to withstand the frequent State "raids" of our funds and can withstand losing close $.5million for the next three years without having to cut back services to our citizens.
- Although Danville only receives a small percentage of each sales tax dollar, it still amounted to approximately $3.9 million in revenue last year. I believe it is important to continue with a strong economic development program to build a solid tax base for Danville's future.
- Any new business development should be in keeping with Danville's small-town charm and Downtown businesses will be built pursuant to the Downtown Master Plan
- I have strongly supported the marketing efforts of Discover Danville (a Town-Merchant's Group marketing town businesses), the Danville Area Chamber of Commerce and the Downtown Merchant's Association. The efforts of these groups are bringing more people into the Downtown for special events and to shop and dine.
- One of my goals when I was appointed to the Council was to find additional parking so that we could continue to attract quality businesses and bring more people into our downtown. With the proposed expansion of the Clock Tower Lot and the recent purchase of the property at 177 Front Street, we will be adding approximately 141 new parking spaces downtown.
- A July 14 Wall Street Journal Article stated that Danville property taxes increased by 56.9% over the past four years. This article needs to be kept in perspective. The Town does not have the authority to raise property taxes and only receives 7.6% of the total property taxes paid (prior to a 1999-2001 shift from the Fire Protection District we only received 6.3%). Under Prop 13, property taxes cannot even be adjusted up by more than 2% unless there is a transfer of ownership (and even that 2% increase does not come from the Town). Danville has had a high number of re-sales of homes resulting in a reassessment of property taxes. Our property values have seen huge increases in the past four years. For those who have not changed residences, there has only been a modest increase in property taxes. When I compared my 2000-2001 Property Tax Bill with my 2003-2004 bill I found that over that four year time period my property taxes (including new school and community college taxes, which bumped it higher) increased approximately 10%, nowhere near the 56.9% described in the Wall Street Journal.
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