Silicon Valley water district maintains hiring freeze amid million-dollar budget shortfall

Silicon Valley’s main water supplier will maintain a hiring freeze in order to offset hundreds of millions of dollars in a budget shortfall.

Valley Water officials instituted a hiring freeze in February for 72 job vacancies amid a $222 million budget deficit for the fiscal year ending in June. The skyrocketing price tags for projects like the Anderson Dam and Pacheco Reservoir expansion — and the rising cost of cleaning waterways polluted by homeless residents — have caused a ballooning shortfall expected to increase to $300 million in 2024-25. That will grow to $350 million the following fiscal year, according to a March Valley Water presentation. Fifty positions are currently frozen and will remain so through fiscal year 2025-26.