When you think of quickly growing areas around Sacramento, Roseville immediately comes to mind.  So you might think the housing crunch would crunch the city’s budget.  That’s true, says city manager Craig Robinson, but only to a point.
 
Robinson: “It’s easy to fall into a trap where one may try to use development-related revenues to cover ongoing expenses.” (0:09)
 
Robinson says a city that relies too much on new growth to increase revenues can run into problems if that growth gets stuck.
 
Robinson: “Those revenues must be used for one-time costs and not the ongoing maintenance and services that our residents expect and require on a daily basis.” (0:10)
 
That’s why Robinson says Roseville has been able to make steady cuts since last summer to keep its budget balanced.  He says the city will slash about 12 million dollars during this fiscal year and next. 
  

Getting Ahead of the Economy
 
Uunlike some cities and counties that are bracing for massive cuts, Roseville city manager Craig Robinson says they’ve been adjusting to the slumping economy since last summer.
 
Robinson: “We took some very early and decisive measures: began un-funding positions, reducing our expenditures – in particular travel and some other key areas so that quite frankly, we’re taking bite-size chunks of the apple instead of trying to choke on the whole thing at any one time.” 
 
Robinson says that for this fiscal year and next, Roseville will have cut at least 50 jobs.
 
Residents might not have seen the impact of those moves yet.  But Robinson says they might – if the slumping economy and lousy housing market lead to even more cuts.