City of Santa Barbara Navigates Gloomy Projections to Balance Its Budget

City of Santa Barbara Navigates Gloomy Projections
to Balance Its Budget

After a Long and Drama-Filled Budget Season,
City Ready to Lock in Its Fiscal Year
2024-2025 Financial Plan

by Ryan P. Cruz | June 12, 2023

It’s been a long budget season for the City of Santa Barbara, but after more than a dozen public meetings totaling more than 50 hours of budget deliberations, the city’s budget is in its final form, and it’s seeming that the financial doom and gloom that was predicted early on might be more of an economic foggy day with the sun waiting just beyond on the horizon.

There was a lot of give and take during the budget talks, but in the end, the City Council was able to reduce the expected deficit by a few hundred thousand dollars, use the city’s reserves to keep the public libraries operating at full capacity, keep proposed fee hikes to a minimum, and save an after-school program that was on the chopping block. 

Gloomy Economic Forecast

When the city released its two-year budget a few months ago on April 18, it projected a million-dollar deficit next year and a $4.8 million deficit in fiscal year 2025 unless each department was able to pitch in and find places to cut. City Administrator Rebecca Bjork recommended that each department cut 5 percent of its budget to put the city in better shape for the possible recession ahead.