Union City Cuts Library Subsidy, Eyes Other Reductions

UNION CITY, CA — The City of Union City is cutting its annual subsidy of $310,000 to the Alameda County Library located adjacent to City Hall. The money had been used to keep the library open an additional 20 hours a week, but as the City Council deals with an anticipated $4 million budget shortfall for 2020/21 because of coronavirus, more cuts are coming.

The City is currently performing a comprehensive fiscal analysis. A City Council budget workshop will take place in early August to discuss the city's seven-year outlook and explore other stabilizing measures. The budget workshop will be followed up with a strategic plan retreat on August 13, 2020 to reassess city priorities, talk about new norms for the city and re-envision the future of city services.

The county-wide coronavirus shelter-in-place order has caused a significant loss of revenues to the Union City’s General Fund including significant declines in sales tax, business license tax, transit-occupancy tax and parking revenue. Meanwhile, the city is enduring additional janitorial costs required to prevent the spread of the virus.

Essential city services, such as police, fire, park and street maintenance and community recreation, are all provided by the General Fund.