Yuba City staff propose $7.7 million in reductions; council asks for direction to close $2.6 million gap

YUBA CITY, Calif. — City staff told the Yuba City Council at a Feb. 3 budget workshop that midyear projections show only small revenue growth and that a suite of departmental reductions is needed to address ongoing structural deficits ahead of the FY2026–27 budget.

Diana Pope, the city’s finance director, opened the presentation with a concise assessment: "This is a high level overview of the general fund." She said midyear projections showed "a small revenue increase of about $200,000 and a reduction of in expenditures of roughly 1,500,000.0," and put discretionary revenue for 2025–26 at about $40,700,000. Vacancies across departments were credited with roughly $1,300,000 in salary savings and about $200,000 in materials and supplies savings.

City Manager Robert Bendorf framed the longer outlook, saying the city’s total budget is "about 126,000,000, roughly" with approximately $62,000,000 in the general fund. "So out of roughly 40,000,000, we'll call it 41,000,000, the majority of it goes to public safety," he said, stressing that public safety and community services take the bulk of discretionary dollars.

Staff proposed a package of reductions across departments that staff estimated would produce roughly $7,700,000 in savings for…