Make Oakland Better Now! held its emergency budget meeting on Monday, January 11 at City Hall.  City Budget Director Cheryl Taylor was there to lay out the painful facts:  the city's General Purpose Fund budget for the fiscal year ending June 30 has a deficit of $9 million.  The General Purpose Fund has only about $51 million in discretionary spending from which cuts can be made.  But the situation is much worse than that, because much of that $51 million has likely been spent already, and the city may have to cut the $9 million out of less than $22 million in unspent funds.

City Council will be meeting in February to figure out what to do about all of this.  The date has become a bit uncertain;  at the MOBN! meeting, we were told February 2, but we've since been hearing that the date will be February 16.  Of course, every day the city waits gives it less and less room in which to maneuver.

Oaklanders can read more about the meeting (and see video excerpts) on the home page of Make Oakland Better Now's web site.  More importantly, they can use the same ballot members used at the meeting last Monday to tell the city how they believe the hole should be plugged.