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The San Ramon City Council is set to resume discussions on the city’s budget as it looks at actualized statements from the past year in preparation for finalizing the upcoming year’s spending plan by June 30.
Tuesday’s meeting will include review and discussion of a preliminary budget for the 2026 to 2027 fiscal year and a look at the past year’s budget – in which funds from the 1% sales tax measure passed by voters in 2024 proved to be pivotal as the city continues grappling with an ongoing deficit.
“The most significant message in the FY27 preliminary budget is the continuing deficit and growing dependency on Measure N revenues,” Finance Director Jennifer Wakeman wrote in a staff report. “Efforts on the financial resilience framework need to continue in earnest if the City is to achieve a balanced operating budget by FY35.”
While funds from Measure N, which first went into effect last spring, left the city with a balanced budget over the past year and bolstered its reserves, Wakeman emphasized the temporary nature of the measure, which is set to expire after 10 years, and cautioned the council not to get too comfortable.
“The on-going cost to provide current service levels is outpacing the growth rate of the City’s on-going revenues, resulting in an operational deficit,” Wakeman wrote. “This is the same issue that has plagued the City for at least the last six years and that will be addressed over the next several years, while the City relies on one- time sources like Measure N to stabilize the City’s finances.”
Over the past year, the city would have been forced to cut spending by nearly $12 million if it weren’t for Measure N funds, with $2.7 million in “excess” funding bolstering reserves to nearly 42%, above the 36% minimum, according to city policy. Of the $85.3 million in revenue projected over the coming year, Measure N funds are expected to account for nearly $15 million.
As Wakeman notes, Measure N revenue is classified as one-time funding for each of its 10-year run, with the measure brought to voters specifically as a temporary means of softening the impacts of the city’s deficit as it works toward balancing its budget in the long run by 2035.
According to calculations in the preliminary budget prepared for the coming fiscal year, there will still be work to do after the second year of the 10-year sales tax measure.
City staff is set to take feedback and direction from the council at the upcoming meeting and return with a proposed budget for adoption on May 26.
The San Ramon City Council is set to meet at 7 p.m Tuesday (May 12). The agenda is available here.
In other business, the council is poised to vote on a resolution to fly the Disability Pride Flag and the America 250 flag on its commemorative flagpole near Central Park during the month of July.
