HomeMy WebLinkAbout06-10,11,12-2013 Item B1, MeyerRECEIVED
Grimes, Maeve JUN 1 1 2013
From: Eric Meyer <frenchbicycles@gmail.com>LO CtTYL
ERK
Sent: Sunday, June 09, 2013 4:28 PM
To: Grimes, Maeve
AGENDA
Subject: budget vs city goals CORRESPONDENCE
Follow Up Flag: Follow up DatO� ite!'1"y,# &
Flag Status: Flagged
Maeve, Can you have following added to the letters of record to council regarding the budget meetings this
week?
Eric Meyer
----------------
Council,
SLO's budget prioritizes "vehicles purchases" over "public bike infrastructure".. almost 100 to 1
SLO General Fund allocation for:
- new bicycle infrastructure: $50,000 (25k per year)
- purchasing new vehicles: $4,000,000
You will spend just 1.25 cents on new public bike infrastructure... for every dollar you spend buying new
vehicles.
SLO's budget line items are misleading... no city funds are really being spent:
For instance:
Railroad Safety Trail -Taft to Pepper... 0 dollars from General Fund,
)$1,759,000 TIP' funds (state transportation improvement funds) and "future" grants as yet undetermined
1
Bob Jones Trail at LOVR... 0 dollars from General Fund
600,000 from a State Highway Grant
Bob Jones connection to Octagon Barn... 0 dollars from General Fund
165k from federal and state grants
According to staff,
Only 25k of our general fund per year will go to new bike infrastructure.
Realizing a major city goal means allocating funds from OUR general fund dollars. All we are doing is funding
bike projects with whatever grant funds come along. There is no proactive funding of bike projects being done
by slo that couldn't be done if we completely ignored funding bikes altogether. We need to create additional
funding above and beyond grants available to anyone if we want to say we are prioritizing bikes as a major city
goal.
Simply using funds that would be available no matter what is NOT prioritizing bikes.
there was no public outcry for more new city trucks... and I do understand the need for more city trucks... but I
suspect that you could cut the vehicle budget by 25% by extending the vehicle service life by 6 months... and
take the funds saved and thereby increase the bicycle budget twenty fold to 1 million per year. I suspect that
adding six months to the service life of a city vehicle before replacing it wouldn't destroy the city.... yet more
connecting bike paths sooner will change things quite a bit.
Eric Meyer
San Luis Obispo