INDEPENDENT AUDIT FINDS EL CAJON IN SOUND FINANCIAL SHAPE
East County News Service
October 18, 2022 (El Cajon) -- Last month, the El Cajon City Council hired a third-party financial analyst, Taxpayers Advocate, to determine “Can the City, through either expenditure savings or uncaptured revenue, generate approximately $13 million in additional General Fund revenue?” The analysis (report) also aimed to provide the City Council with an overall assessment of the City’s financial condition.
Through a Request for Proposals process, Taxpayers Advocate, along with Richard Parker, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus in the School of Public Affairs at San Diego State University, was hired to prepare the analysis. The study was completed and the City received a report with the following six key findings:
- El Cajon has prudent fiscal policies;
- El Cajon has excellent senior management;
- The results of this analysis strongly suggest that the City supplies services in an efficient manner;
- The results of this analysis strongly suggest that there are NOT budget cuts that can be clearly identified to fund new or augmented services without severely cutting existing core services;
- This analysis finds that there are not significant new, near-term (non-tax) revenues available to add desired new or augmented services; and
- This analysis finds that new General or Special Tax Revenues are required in order to add significantly new or augmented services.
The City Council requested the audit to affirm whether a sales tax measure was necessary to maintain current and growing City services. Measure P would repeal and replace the existing half-cent sales tax with a one-cent sales tax.
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