2017-2018 Santa Cruz City Budget

• On May 23rd, 2017 the Santa Cruz City Council conducted their 2018 Fiscal Year Budget Hearings to review the 2017-2018 Santa Cruz City Budget Proposal which projects the City’s annual budget from July 1st, 2017 to June 30th, 2018.
• While the City is expecting $92.08 million in revenue, projected expenditures of $99.02 million stand $7 million higher, which is of budgetary concern and raises questions as to how the City can increase revenue in order to avoid deficit. According to the Santa Cruz City Council “should the Fiscal Year 2018 Proposed Budget be adopted as is, it would require a General Fund budget allocation of $2.1 million from reserves to offset the current projected deficit. This would drop General Fund reserves below their minimum funding level.”
• The City expects the majority of its revenue to come from Property Taxes ($19.5 million), Sales and Use Taxes ($18.96 million), Charges for Services ($15.34 million) and Utility Taxes ($11.81 million), higher expenditures are projected to come from funding Public Safety ($45.16 million), Community and Cultural Services such as the Library as well as Parks and Recreation ($16.46 million), General Government Funding ($17.22 million) and Public Works ($9.5 million).
• Santa Cruz’s fiscal issues are similar to other central coast cities, the combination of slow economic growth, with needed maintenance on overdue infrastructure and high pension costs, has led to fiscal predictions that by 2020, the City of Santa Cruz will face a $9.1 million gap between revenue and expenditure, with this number projected to expand to $15.5 million by 2022. While projected expenses currently surpass revenue expectations, the City believes that revenue boosting projects such as the building of a new basketball arena for the Santa Cruz D League Warriors, the construction of three new hotels, and a fiber optic cable project, will generate the additional revenue needed to cover this gap.  
• Despite these abysmal projections of excess expenditure, City Manager Martin Bernal remains optimistic, declaring, “While there is no doubt we are facing some major challenges, the future is filled with tremendous opportunities. Our charge is to take advantage of these opportunities to meet the needs of our community and further our quality of life. The Fiscal Year 2018 Proposed Budget furthers the City’s Strategic Vision and Work Plan and hopefully will contribute to making the City of Santa Cruz an even more amazing place”.

For details and more information please see the following links:

• http://www.cityofsantacruz.com/home/showdocument?id=59876
• http://scsire.cityofsantacruz.com/sirepub/cache/2/dlkdt25ju5tvhuhxkawnbufk/459343406042017083818992.PDF​