Chamber Advocacy's Input on City Budget Priorities

The Chamber’s Advocacy Council presented input on budget priorities at Tuesday’s Santa Rosa City Council meeting. The Advocacy Council submitted a list of what the Chamber considers the most important issues facing our community, deeming them deserving of the highest priority in setting the city’s annual goals and budgets.

Those priorities included:

Addressing the Housing Crisis: Rents are skyrocketing and the homeless are having an increasing impact on our community particularly downtown. The City needs to focus on housing that is affordable to help our homeless community, as well as removing barriers that prevent the private sector from building new workforce housing. It is extremely important that the challenge of workforce housing be addressed since we will fail in retaining, let alone attracting, the workforce that is critical for our economic future.

Moving forward with the Re-Unification of Courthouse Square: We have the opportunity to re-energize our downtown by expediting this re-unification. It should be done in two phases, include added parking, and limited design enhancements to keep the cost well below the proposed figure. We urge that funding is secured for each phase so that the project is not left unfinished.

Fund Public/Private Economic Development Efforts: The economy has improved significantly over the past year in part due to the efforts by many in the community to work on growing our economy. It is very important that the City invest in this effort to ensure continued creation of good paying jobs in our community.

Make the City More Customer Friendly: With the economy improving and city revenues beginning to increase, it seems time to re-emphasize the City’s role of providing services to our citizens and businesses. Too often in the past few years, staffing limitations have resulted in a failure to respond quickly and positively to requests for help or applications made to the City. Ensuring that the City presents a friendly, assistance oriented approach should be one of the City’s top priorities.

Annexation of Roseland: This project is already moving forward and we support its continuing to be a priority for the City. Roseland needs to become part of Santa Rosa.

Transportation Needs: City streets need upgrading and connections need to be forged with the SMART Train. We urge the City to prioritize transportation as key not only to quality of life for our citizens but in support of the infrastructure needed by our businesses, while working in coordination with the County of Sonoma, and their plans for road improvements.

The Chamber believes that successful addressing of these priorities is critical for the future of our community, and stands ready to participate and assist in these efforts.