Santa Barbara City Council Green Lights $667 Million Budget

By the edhat staff

The Santa Barbara City Council approved its operating and capital budget for the 2024 fiscal year and financial plans for 2025 on Tuesday.

The 2024 Adopted Budget of approximately $667 million will fund community services and implement capital improvement projects.

Last month city staff and councilmembers worked to make budget cuts in various departments to help ease a nearly $4 million projected deficit in the $220 million General Fund.

Shortly thereafter, the City’s first ever Economic Development Manager, Jason Harris, announced he was leaving when City Administrator Rebecca Bjork proposed cutting his $182,193 annual salary.

“Our City and its resilient residents have navigated through exceptionally demanding economic circumstances, including the impact of COVID, inflation, and the escalating costs of goods and services. Despite these challenges, through sound fiscal management and a range of hard choices, we have enacted a responsible budget that maintains service levels and makes needed investments for our community. The invaluable contribution of public input has been vital to this final budget, and we remain dedicated to actively seeking your input on ways to continue maintaining essential services in Santa Barbara,” said Bjork in a press release announcing the 2024 budget.

In previous budget meetings, the council had already approved a variety of items including an increase to downtown parking fees, increasing permit revenue, increase funding to libraries and restore hours, increase the transient occupancy tax, and fund a position for the Fire Department but not the Police Department.

Councilmember Alejandra Gutierrez pleaded for increased funding to the police department for more officers citing criminal activity and emergency response times in her Eastside neighborhood.

“It’s easy to put a vote to things that are popular,” said Gutierrez. “It’s really hard to achieve balance and provide justice, especially in the world we live in.”

The adopted budget for FY2024 can be accessed on the online here and will be updated within the next few weeks to reflect the final actions taken by the City Council.