Palo Alto, CA -- Palo Alto Mayor Dena Mossar, Council Member and Finance Committee Chair Jack Morton, and City Manager Frank Benest will answer residents' questions about the City's budget at an informal session next Wednesday, June 11, from 8:30 - 10:30 am at Palo Alto Café, 2675 Middlefield Road.

The City Manager's proposed budget has been passed on to the full Council by the Finance Committee, after weeks of public hearings and some fine-tuning by the Committee. The City Council is scheduled to vote on adopting the budget at their June 16 meeting.

With Silicon Valley in the middle of an economic downturn that has seen sales tax revenues drop dramatically, Palo Alto faces a $10 million deficit, which forces cutbacks in order to balance the budget. There has been much public debate over which services to cut and which to preserve.

"So much has been said or written about the proposed budget. I wanted to give people a chance to sit down over a cup of coffee and ask us questions about it," says Mayor Mossar.

Palo Alto Café is located in Midtown, near the intersection of Middlefield Road and Colorado Avenue.

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