Sacramento County adopts $8.9 billion 2025‑26 budget, restores public‑safety and parkway funding after debate

The Sacramento County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved the county's fiscal year 2025'26 recommended budget and five'year capital improvement plan at its June 4 meeting, adopting an $8.9 billion all'funds spending plan that officials say reduces, but does not eliminate, the county's reliance on one'time resources.

The vote followed nearly eight hours of staff presentations and public testimony in which residents, business groups and advocacy organizations pressed supervisors on cuts proposed earlier in the process to the sheriff's department and the district attorney's office, and asked the board to restore funding for parks, school field trips and community prosecution programs.

The adopted budget totals $8,900,000,000 in appropriations across all funds and includes a general fund spending plan of about $4.0 billion. Amanda Thomas, the county's chief fiscal officer, said the budget is balanced as required by state law but continues to rely on one'time fund balance. "To bring the budget into structural balance, we really must align our ongoing expenditures with ongoing revenues," Thomas told the board during her overview. She said available discretionary resources include an estimated $71 million in fund balance and that the county will not make a reserve deposit this year because the budget does not fully fund the base level of service.

Why it matters: the plan funds court-ordered obligations tied to the Mays consent decree for jail health and mental health services, preserves a set of public-safety programs that drew heavy public attention and keeps most city and county partnership initiatives on track while trimming other departmental spending. County Executive David Villanueva said balancing the budget required "difficult recommendations" but reflected board priorities including compliance with legal obligations, optimizing county resources and targeting new spending to the most urgent needs.

What the board did: The budget package the board adopted restores some reductions that had been proposed earlier in the process and moves one-time reserves into specific programs. Notable changes supervisors approved at the meeting include:

- Restoring a proposed reduction at the district attorney's office that would have deleted six positions in misdemeanor units; the board approved the restoration with $500,000 of one-time restricted revenue and additional salary-savings assumptions to cover the net county cost.

- Funding one principal criminal attorney in the district attorney's office for one year to establish a community prosecutor position focused on North Sacramento and Del Paso Heights; that position will be paid this year from a one-time allocation out of a reserve tied to American River Parkway homelessness impacts and requires a memorandum of understanding with the City of Sacramento about future-year funding expectations.

- Restoring the sheriff's Hot Team and POP (Problem-Oriented Policing) team funding that had been recommended for reduction; the board approved a combination of one-time reserves and departmental adjustments to restore those resources.

- Restoring a small marine detail allocation for law enforcement and approving one-time funding for restroom repairs…