VISTA — Gail Glass said she could not imagine that her city would be running so low on money that it would be forced to shut off streetlights on her block.
Vista ended up issuing a brief reprieve on its planned budget-cutting measure, but it’s still on the table. Glass, who has lived off-and-on in the Creekside Terrace neighborhood for 20 years, said the proposal seems a bit much. Not in Vista.
The city has been rocked since the Great Recession began in 2007 with relentless budget pressures. In recent months, city officials have resorted to austere measures to get its finances under control, highlighted by its proposal to turn off the lights in residential neighborhoods to cut $230,000 from a $9 million budget gap.
Cities across the county have taken similar measures to bring budgets to black. Chula Vista, for example, shut off every other streetlight on its main thoroughfares. But few cities have gone to the lengths Vista has to balance its general fund budget of about $59 million.
Read the Full Story Here
Print This.
