Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Budget Midyear Update topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
City finance staff present midyear budget update; council approves FY25 adjustments
Summary
Finance director presented a midyear update showing revenues roughly on target, two one-time state grants totaling about $6 million, and recommended budget adjustments; council approved staff recommendations unanimously.
The Santa Cruz City Council on Tuesday received a midyear fiscal update from Finance Director Elizabeth Cavill and approved staff-recommended adjustments to the fiscal year 2025 budget.
Cavill told the council the city adopted a balanced FY25 budget of about $150 million and is roughly 50 percent through the fiscal year on both revenues and expenditures. She said the apparent jump in revenues and expenditures between FY23–24 and FY25 reflects an accounting change in cost-allocation methods, not an operational surge. Cavill and management analyst Emily Burton also flagged approximately $6.4 million in capital improvement project (CIP) revenue adjustments tied to unbudgeted grants and transfers and about $1 million of additional general-fund revenue from fees and licenses.
Burton and staff explained the adjustments add matching CIP expenditures aligned with grant revenues and create two new funds to track state transportation development and to budget $30,000 in carbon fund awards. Personnel changes were also proposed: nine position additions across administrative services, resiliency and sustainability, parks and recreation, and water treatment and engineering, some to be recruited earlier than previously planned.
Council members asked several questions. Council member Golder pressed staff to ensure new hotel rooms coming online would not be used as long-term dormitory rentals that would bypass transient occupancy tax (TOT); staff said audit and prior agreements with institutions such as the university are used to protect TOT revenue. No council members requested that the item be continued.
Council member O'Hara moved to adopt the staff recommendation; Council member Tragero seconded. The clerk recorded unanimous ayes and the motion passed.
Staff outlined the next steps for FY26: department budget development, commission review, one-on-one briefings with council members, public posting of the proposed budget in May, hearings in late May, and adoption in June.
Council approved the midyear adjustments and authorized the city manager to make allocations and appropriations within the adjusted budgets, as described in staff materials.
