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Finance committee reviews preliminary biannual budget and $3.4M CIP reallocation options
Summary
City finance staff presented a preliminary biennial general fund and capital budget and proposed reallocating $3.4 million in carryover funds toward streets and traffic-calming projects; committee members requested clearer project lists and schedules before recommending allocations.
Salinas finance staff on May 12 presented a preliminary biennial budget for fiscal years 2026-27 and 2027-28 and asked the Finance Committee for input on capital-improvement priorities, including a staff-identified $3.4 million in potential reallocation.
Finance Director Selena Andrews said the preliminary budget outlines total resources of roughly $193 million across funds and a projected operating-expenditure total of about $207.1 million, producing a roughly $14 million variance staff plans to address through fund-balance use, CIP reallocations and other adjustments.
Adriana Robles reviewed the capital improvement program and said the city held approximately $66 million in carryover across funding sources as of April 1. ‘‘We did come up with $3,400,000, which we are requesting the finance committee to take a look at,’’ she said, recommending that money go toward street preventative maintenance and possibly Baranda Road, while noting traffic-calming requests could also be funded.
Traffic-calming versus pavement maintenance: Committee members said they supported both goals but asked for more detail before choosing a direction. Councilmember D'Arrigo said she was not prepared to recommend a specific allocation without seeing the traffic-calming project schedule and a list of pending requests. Staff explained that the $2 million traffic-calming estimate was produced by evaluating the backlog of requests and assigning a basic-treatment cost per project; staff also noted the city's annual traffic-calming budget is modest (about $200,000 per year) and the current account balance is about half a million.
Public input and equity concerns: Public commenters urged prioritizing infrastructure investment in East Salinas/District 1 and sought visible, measurable results. A VHC representative reported collecting 1,300 community surveys showing housing, community development, youth services and infrastructure among the top local priorities.
Next steps: Committee members asked staff to return with a clearer, option-based presentation that lists specific candidate projects, estimated costs, and timelines so council can decide how to apply the $3.4 million reallocation. No final appropriation was adopted at the committee meeting; staff will reformat options for decision at a future hearing.
