Los Banos reports multiyear budget surpluses, launches online permitting and local spending campaign

Los Banos leaders on Thursday highlighted a string of budget surpluses and new tools to speed development and keep tax dollars in the city.

"City achieved budget surplus in 2025 of about 4.7 million, and this year it's projected another surplus of 4.2 million," Finance Director Minnie Minerva Moreno said during the State of the City address, noting the city maintains a roughly 30% reserve.

The mayor and finance staff framed the surpluses as a product of "responsible budgeting and disciplined planning" that allow continued investment in public safety, infrastructure and services. The transcript lists revenues of $32.7 million for 2024–25 and (formatting unclear) expenditures noted as $8 million; city staff said 2025–26 revenues are about 33 (transcript formatting) with expenditures reported as 9 million. The city said it will maintain reserves to protect services in economic uncertainty.

Officials also flagged sales-tax "leakage" as a major fiscal challenge. "Nearly 70% of our sales tax revenues [are lost when] city residents shopping elsewhere," Mayor Michael Amabile said, calling on residents to patronize local businesses and announcing a "Shop Smart, Support Local" campaign to encourage spending at home.

To streamline development and cut red tape, Community and Economic Development Director Stacey Souza Elms described an enterprise permitting and licensing system (Tyler Technologies, EPNL) that will enable online permitting, electronic plan review and a public-facing portal for permit tracking. Elms also outlined plans to convert the former police annex into a centralized Development Services Center to bring planning, engineering, building and fire prevention under one roof.

"This will make getting a permit much more efficient…for the public and development," Elms said, describing a one-stop approach that officials said will improve customer service and interdepartmental coordination.

City officials said they are updating objective community design standards to raise the quality of new development while remaining within California legal requirements.

What happens next: City staff said EPNL implementation and the Development Services Center rehabilitation are planned within the coming months; the Shop Smart campaign will be rolled out to encourage local spending.

Sources: City presentations at the State of the City address.