At Mayor Chuck Reed’s State of the City Address on Thursday, Feb. 9 at the Civic Auditorium, the mayor was intent on highlighting his role as a fiscal reformer.

“The budget deficit is public enemy No. 1, an enemy that will steal our hopes and kill our dreams of becoming a great city if we ignore it,” Reed said, using a quote from a speech he gave five years ago, as he began his discussion of his budget plan for 2012.

Reed said his budget plan approved by the San Jose City Council in May has two main goals this year.

“Ensure the solvency of the retirement plans by reducing the city’ s annual cost for retirement benefits to last year’ s level,” Reed said. “Open the city’s vacant libraries, community centers, fire stations and police substation.”

Reed went on to discuss the police budget, saying “Despite increasing the budget by nearly a $100 million dollars over the past 10 years, we now have fewer officers than we had a decade ago.”

“Those figures just don’t match up,” Aaqilah Brown, 19, biology major, said. “What are they doing with the money?”

The rising cost of retirement, “was the single largest cause of those cuts,” Reed said.

Reed also said he wants to see voters approve a ballot measure in June.

The measure would require current city employees “to pay a larger share of the costs of their retirement benefits,” Reed said.

Reed said that the costs of retirement benefits have risen from $73 million in 2001-2002, to $245 million in 2012.

“Retirement benefits now cost the city more than 50 percent of base payroll and consume over 20 percent of our general fund budget,” Reed said.

“I would like to see him do more than just play with numbers,” San Jose City College communications professor Merylee Shelton said.

Shelton said the city plan needs “out-of-the-box thinking, not slash and burn.”

She would like to see the city establish a two-tier system where employees hired before the rule took effect would retain their benefits and new employees would be subject to the new regulations.

Reed said that in the past 10 years the city of San Jose has eliminated more than 2000 city jobs.

“Every city job eliminated reduces the services we can deliver to our residents,” Reed said.

“I think the mayor should start funding programs for the disabled and the elderly,” said Pat Riley, 46, environmental science major.