SACRAMENTO – The City of Sacramento released its proposed budget for the 2025-2026 fiscal year on Wednesday.
The interim city manager is proposing a $1.65 billion budget to try and close the gap on the $44 million funding gap.
"Our revenue is up, the challenge here is just spending, costs, exceeds revenue," said Sacramento City Councilmember for District 4 Phil Pluckenbaum.
The proposed budget could come with layoffs to city staff for the first time in years. It proposes eliminating roughly 12 filled city staff positions and about 70 vacant ones.
Twenty-three of the vacant positions are from the Sacramento Police Department.
"Police services is going to be tough," Pluckenbaum said. "The positions that we're looking at cutting any part of that funding, even for the vacant positions, is going to impact our ability to staff for events."
Pluckenbaum said vacant positions matter and cutting them will result in service reductions.
That is because they use the dollars not spent on these positions to pay for overtime for existing employees to do that extra work. A spokesperson with the Sacramento Police Department confirms that is how they have often been paying overtime.
"It's a scary thought and what happens in subsequent years?" said Iman Sheikh, who lives in Sacramento. "Are we going to cut more? Are we going to cut less?"
Public safety continues to be top of mind for so many as the city continues to make big strides in growth.
Meanwhile, the Sacramento Fire Department is not facing any job cuts.
The price for safety is coming with a cost for businesses, with all 110 fire prevention fees increasing for the first time since 2018, some by 100%.
"I am not open for that," said the owner of The Midnight Gallery tattoo studio in midtown, Jesse Missman.
Missman opened his business about five years ago and said he is paying around $150 yearly for fire inspections.
"The cost of everything you know has been tricky. We've adapted to it as much as we can because most of the cost is a necessity," Missman said.
Captain Justin Sylvia with Sacramento Fire said he knows that most people would rather have seen a gradual increase versus the fees going up all at once.
"Seeing these fees is not going to be fun for anyone; however. to keep the vital services of the fire department running, we need to figure out how we need to do that, and this is one proposed way of doing that," Sylvia said.
The city's budget does propose cuts to two positions from the diversity, outreach and recruitment program with Sacramento Fire.
This team goes out to high schools to recruit kids, so this engagement is something the community could no longer see if approved.
Pluckenbaum told CBS13 that the city staff members proposed to be laid off have already been notified, and if approved, those layoffs would begin in July.
The budget proposal said that the city is "defining core city services and taking a strategic approach to revenue enhancements and expenditure reductions instead of pursuing across-the-board cuts."
The proposal said that despite a reduction in state homeless funding, the city is maintaining its 1,350 shelter beds and working on more strategies to reduce homelessness.
The proposed budget also reads that the city will continue to invest in its new Transportation Safety Team to tackle roadway and pedestrian safety, streamline the permitting process for new housing, making improvements to Old Sacramento, transform the Railyards after just breaking ground on the new hospital, create new city libraries and will soon be announcing an allocation for a children's fund.
The city council will be presented with the proposed budget at its meeting on May 13.
It will be having discussions and public hearings over the next two months before approving a finalized budget by the end of June.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Sacramento's proposed budget outlines possible city staff layoffs that could impact public safety )
Also on site :
- Kacey Musgraves Makes Bold Statement About 'Returning to Country Music'
- James B. Milliken, University of Texas chancellor, named University of California president
- Aldi's Stylish $19 Cast Aluminum Pan is Back in Stock and Guaranteed to Sell Out Fast