Victorville presents draft $387 million citywide budget; Measure P, public safety and capital projects drive spending

Victorville City staff on May 22 presented a draft fiscal year 2025–26 budget that proposes about $376.3 million in citywide revenue and roughly $387.7 million in expenditures, including $45 million in capital improvements and continued investments in public safety and city infrastructure.

The presentation, given at a council budget workshop, emphasized that the proposed budget would rely in part on unencumbered fund balances and carryover project funds to cover a small deficit in the general fund while preserving reserve targets. City staff also outlined planned capital projects, rate-plan-driven increases for enterprise utilities and personnel changes that together aim to sustain expanded public-safety staffing funded in part by Measure P.

City Manager (presenter) summarized the package as “a living document” prepared from the city’s multiyear strategic plan and designed to be updated during the fiscal year as conditions change. He told the council the budget shows a modest year-to-year increase in both revenues and spending and described how capital project carryovers and accounting for prior-year receipts create the appearance of a deficit that is routinely managed with the city’s unencumbered fund balance.

Key numbers and context

- Citywide: staff proposed $376,296,000 in revenues and $387,669,000 in expenditures, including $45,000,000 for capital improvements. Staff said those totals represent slight increases over the current fiscal year.

- General fund: proposed revenues of $108,939,000 against proposed expenditures of $110,497,000, a projected single-year deficit of about $1.51 million. Staff said a planned transfer from a utility-related fund (identified in the presentation as a VEMAS/VEMUS adjustment) would reduce the near-term general fund deficit to about $707,000.

- Measure P: staff reported about $44 million in cash on hand, projected Measure P revenue of $31,578,000 in 2025–26 and planned Measure P capital spending and reserves (including a $4 million annual police-station reserve deposit and a $775,000 fire apparatus replacement reserve).

- Enterprise and special funds: the sewer fund is budgeted for about $32.9 million in revenue (with a multi‑year rate plan that includes a scheduled 6.85% step in the adopted sewer rate plan); solid…