Good news on a decent budget, and glad to see city staff is helping out.

But Voice - PLEASE don't say the city employees took cuts in pay. NO ONE is getting paid less than this year. As your article later explains, most are in fact getting raises!

Yes, the raises are smaller than expected, but they are still raises and in many cases these raises are higher than the CPI cost of living. So in a world of big unemployment, people losing jobs, and real pay cuts please provide a more accurate description - as 'lower raises' or 'salary freezes'.

What's more, those only reflect salary. All city employees total compensation is MUCH higher next year due to higher costs of benefits and pensions. So if you compare them to a small biz owner or freelancer or contractor in Mountain View, who pay for all that themselves, we see that city employees are ALL getting big compensation increases this year.

Again, it's great that city staff have helped on the budget even though not legally required. But they should also keep in mind that they are still getting MUCH better deals overall than lots of private citizens. And as Councilmembers Macias, Means, and Siegal noted, it is time that Mountain View got these ongoing increases to total compensation under control.