Updated June 12, 11:19 a.m.
The Sacramento City Council approved a budget on Tuesday after months of discussing how to close a $66 million deficit.
Council members Mai Vang and Katie Valenzuela voted against the budget, arguing they want to see police funding go toward social services. But Valenzuela says she’s also concerned that cutting vacant police positions responsible for investigating misconduct will affect the Office of Public Safety Accountability, or OPSA.
“We’ve put a lot of money into OPSA so that they can get more timely in their review of complaints,” she said. “And that doesn’t work if they don’t have the people on the PD side who are reviewing the complaints so they can get their work done as well.”
The city avoided or reduced some proposed cuts, including a free youth transit program, by canceling more contributions to the city’s rainy day fund. The fund will be nearly $64 million below target next June, making the city more vulnerable to a recession.
Original story, published May 2:
Sacramento City Manager Howard Chan on Tuesday released a budget proposal outlining a plan to close the $66 million deficit staff warned of a couple months ago by increasing fees and cutting services.
The city council is set to begin public hearings on the $1.6 billion proposed budget next week and will determine whether to move forward with strategies ranging from adding 300 new parking meters to ending funding for a program allowing youth to ride buses and light rail for free.
“Now the city council takes that template and we look to see what options we have, what tradeoffs we have,” Mayor Darrell Steinberg said. “We look at some of the cuts and there’s some cuts that may — and undoubtedly will — cause the council some concern.”
Chan proposed eliminating about 44 vacant full-time jobs, but not laying off any current city workers. Other cost-saving measures include not contributing $4 million to the rainy day fund and ending free electric vehicle charging in city garages as well as a program designed to help residents access healthcare resources.
If the council passes the proposal as is, residents could also see higher fees for community garden plots and sports field and community center rentals. Renting an adult sports field at Land Park could increase from $18 to $25 per hour, for example. The city is considering operating street parking meters on Sundays and holidays, too.
The budget proposal maintains funding for the city’s 1,350 shelter spaces as well as the Incident Management Team for homelessness, which formed in August.
“As the City heads into the new fiscal year, increasing service needs, higher costs and slower revenue growth will continue to create challenges,” Chan wrote in his letter introducing the proposal. “It’s also worth noting that any economic downturn would cause further strain on the City’s budget.”
City staff previously said tax revenues didn’t grow as much as expected when the council approved the current budget last year. Other factors that contributed to the budget shortfall include inflation, and increased labor, pension and insurance costs.
The council is scheduled to adopt a budget on June 11, before the new fiscal year begins July 1.
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