Santa Cruz County board adopts tentative FY2025-26 budget with 3¢ property tax reduction

The Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors on July 8 unanimously adopted the tentative fiscal year 2025–26 budget, approving staff recommendations that reduce the county’s primary property tax rate by 3 cents and include a 3% cost‑of‑living adjustment for eligible employees.

Chief Deputy Chavez, who presented the budget, said the county’s “focus for this tentative budget is to provide [a] stable financial foundation with a conservative budget ensuring continued delivery of essential mandated services,” and described the plan to reduce the primary tax rate from 4.0065 to 3.9765 for the upcoming tax year and to continue the same 3¢ reduction annually for the next three years subject to annual review.

The nut graf: County staff said the tentative budget aims to balance continued delivery of mandated services, capital projects and workforce competitiveness while relying heavily on external grants for many capital initiatives. Staff reported total general fund budgeted expenditures of about $43.8 million and total budgeted resources across all funds of roughly $156.5 million; special revenues fell from the prior year primarily because American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) allocations ended.

Budget highlights and details Chief Deputy Chavez told the board the recommended property tax reduction is a four‑year plan the board asked staff to analyze, and staff…