While Sacramento City Councilman Steve Cohn expects dismal budget numbers for the city this year, he also thinks the local economy will begin to heal.

In an interview about his goals for 2010, Cohn said the city budget will be his top priority. He said he doesn’t yet know a specific number for the city’s possible budget deficit this year, but he expects the figures to be daunting. The Sacramento City Council made major cuts to services last year to address a $50 million deficit.

“In general, despite the tough economy, I’m actually very optimistic about the future,” Cohn said. “So I feel like we’re going to see things start to turn around in 2010.”

Cohn said he expects job opportunities to appear toward the end of the year. Though he has an optimistic view of what the year will bring, he said city leaders must be “very careful” about how they spend money.

Cohn, whose district includes Downtown, Midtown and East Sacramento, is running for re-election in the June City Council race. Since his term ends in late November, he noted that the re-election outcome would not impede his progress with his goals this year.

Cohn is running against building contractor and former mayoral candidate Shawn Eldredge and real estate businessman Christopher Little.

When budget time comes around in May, Cohn will be looking at public safety.

“Public safety is obviously the most significant thing that we do,” he said.

Cohn noted that the city’s reserves are nearly dried up. The city will need to guarantee that its expenses align with its revenues, he said.

Cohn does not want to lower funding for the police and fire departments: “It’s hard for me to see how we can cut police and fire any more than we already have," he said. "That's not to say that somebody can’t come up with creative suggestions for how to better deploy our resources, and so we look to our police chief and fire chief for ideas.”

After the budget, the transportation project at the Sacramento Valley Station is Cohn’s second highest priority for the year. The outcome of the three-phase project will be a new regional transportation complex. A key part of the first-phase of the project, which will cost an estimated $60 million, is relocating railroad tracks.

The city plans to put construction work out to bid and start building this year, Cohn said.

“The first phase is the most critical because it allows not only for the station to be expanded so it can handle all those different forms of rail and transit that come through there, but also to allow the development to occur in the Railyards,” he said.

The project is being paid for by federal, state and local sales tax revenues that go toward transportation projects. None of the city’s general fund money is going toward the project, Cohn noted.

The councilman’s third goal for the year will be to finish a set of enhancements to Sutter’s Landing Park at 28th and B streets in Midtown. The improvements should make the former dump feel more like a real park, Cohn said.

“Obviously, right now, it still has a little bit of the feel of the city dump that it used to be,” he said.

Cohn’s top three priorities for 2010 are among dozens of goals he laid out in a his 2010 State of the District Report. Read the full list of Cohn’s goals on page three of the report. 

Photos by Anthony Bento.

Staff reporter Suzanne Hurt contributed to this story. Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.