Prop. 57 passes to relief of city, school leaders Prop. 57 passes to relief of city, school leaders (March 05, 2004)

By Julie O'Shea and Grace Rauh

City and school officials say Tuesday's landslide win for Proposition 57 -- Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's $15 billion recovery bond -- brings a silver lining to the state's troubling fiscal woes.

Despite its win of 63.3 percent of the vote, local leaders say they aren't out of the woods yet. They will still face many uncertainties as they prepare next year's budgets. However, had the bond not passed, officials feared a great burden would have been passed on to them.

"If 57 (didn't) pass, then the state (would) have to take some other type of actions to get its fiscal house in order," said Patty Kong, Mountain View's assistant finance director. "And those actions could have a severe impact on the city."

Joe White, the finance chief for the Mountain View-Los Altos Union High School District, said that while the failure of Proposition 57 would have been bad, the district is more than prepared to face fiscal uncertainty.

"We have an ending fund balance. We have layoff notices we can send out. We have an economic uncertainty (fund) we can fall back on," White said. "We have a bunch of alternatives."

White said he hadn't given much thought to the bond not passing, adding that he would have been more concerned if the district did not have alternative measures in place.

Mountain View-Whisman finance director Rebecca Wright said Monday that she was waiting to see how well Proposition 57 faired at the polls before making any decisions.

"I just can't imagine what would come next," Wright said, speculating on what would happen if the bond lost.

"The money has to come from somewhere," she added.

E-mail Julie O'Shea at joshea@mv-voice.com and Grace Rauh at grauh@mv-voice.com

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