Mayor Mark Turner delivered his annual State of the City address March 11 at the Granada Theater in downtown Morgan Hill, where he painted an optimistic picture of the city’s growth while raising concerns about state overreach and a looming budget shortfall.
The hour-long speech drew an audience of residents, business owners, nonprofit leaders, law enforcement agents and city officials, as well as representatives from neighboring Gilroy including Mayor Greg Bozzo and city council members.
Turner acknowledged that Morgan Hill faces a structural budget deficit driven in part by what he described as a longstanding revenue disadvantage compared to neighboring cities.
Morgan Hill receives about $725 in tax revenue per capita, Turner said, compared to roughly $1,450 per capita for other cities in Santa Clara County, a gap he attributed to the city’s lack of utility taxes, local hotel taxes, sales tax, parcel taxes and a lower share of property tax revenue.
“After years of holding the line on staffing costs, there are limits to what internal cuts alone can achieve,” he said, adding that the city would need “a serious community-wide conversation about a potential tax measure” to sustain services.
Turner said the city has maintained strong financial reserves through conservative budgeting but has “reached the point where we must take a serious look at additional revenue.”
Turner sharply criticized California state lawmakers for what he characterized as a double standard in how Sacramento treats voter-approved measures versus state-imposed housing mandates, citing Proposition 36, a tough-on-crime measure he says the state has dragged its feet in implementing.
“It’s interesting that when the legislature passes a housing law, cities like ours are required to implement that law, no questions asked,” he said. “That’s the standard we’re held to, but when the voters themselves overwhelmingly approve a statewide proposition that becomes law, we see a very different standard.”
Turner also pushed back against state housing laws he said are being enacted without meaningful local input, and called on state officials including Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas to pause new legislation and review the laws that are already on the books.
“Sacramento’s mandates on housing production and the laws which allow developers to eliminate on-site parking in high-density housing developments are already causing frustration in neighborhoods and safety concerns on our streets,” he said. “Housing projects that don’t provide parking in a community like ours with limited transit service is an example of ‘one-size-fits-all’ legislation that negatively affects everyone.”
He also criticized the state’s electrification mandates, arguing they are advancing faster than the electrical grid can support. He called on state leaders to halt any new electrification requirement until PG&E can demonstrate 12 consecutive months of uninterrupted service to all customers in its service area.
Turner heaped praise on both Cal Fire and the Morgan Hill Police Department, calling the latter “one of the most forward-thinking police departments in the region.”
He highlighted several recent law enforcement accomplishments, including Morgan Hill’s participation in the shutdown of 12 massage businesses throughout South County allegedly found to be fronts for human trafficking and illicit sexual activity.
“Not bad for a department that operates with about 0.8 police officers per 1,000 residents,” Turner said, noting the typical benchmark is closer to 1.4 officers per 1,000 residents.
Turner devoted a significant portion of his speech to calling attention to Morgan Hill students’ decline in third-grade reading proficiency, calling it “one of the strongest predictors of long-term success” and noting that fewer than 40% of third graders in Morgan Hill are currently meeting reading standards.
“That is 10 percentage points below the state average,” he said. “In other parts of Santa Clara County, proficiency rates are far higher, with some communities reaching as much as 85%, but even that is far below where we should be setting our sights.”
Turner announced an initiative through the Santa Clara County Library District to create a new early literacy program for students in pre-kindergarten through third grade, and asked the Morgan Hill Unified School District to partner with them in setting a public goal of raising third-grade reading proficiency in Morgan Hill to 65% within three years and to 85% or better within five years.
“Every academic subject, every opportunity that follows stems from the single, essential capability of reading,” he said. “We must do better for the sake of our children, and for the sake of our future.”
Turner closed his speech by drawing a parallel between the story of Martin Murphy, the pioneer who blazed a trail through the Sierra Nevada to eventually settle in what would later become Morgan Hill, and the challenges facing the city today.
“Great things lie ahead of us, and we have potential beyond measure,” he said. “That doesn’t mean we won’t face challenges. We will, and we do. But like the Murphy family, we will choose hope over hesitation, we’ll choose determination over doubt, and we’ll choose grit over grumbling. As a result, we will overcome any obstacle that attempts to impede our progress.”
What were the main topics addressed by Mark Turner in his State of the City address?