Just got back from Fremont’s quarterly budget briefing. In December the news was all doom and gloom: property tax and sales tax revenues (68 percent of total city revenues) weren’t growing as fast as the city had projected.

Three months later that’s still the case, but it appears the bottom hasn’t fallen out, so no major cutbacks yet.

City Manager Fred Diaz has ordered departments to cut 1 percent from their budgets and has held about 20 positions vacant. The potential upshot is reduced police front desk hours, longer turnaround for maintenance issues and slower response time to resident requests.

Diaz said there’s no talk of trying for another tax hike unless residents come forward and push for one. Any volunteers?