Silicon Valley\u2019s 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 \u2014 and the rising cost of cleaning waterways polluted by homeless residents \u2014 have caused a\u00a0ballooning shortfall expected to increase to $300 million in 2024-25. That will grow to $350 million the following fiscal year, according to…<\/p>\n