The budget that will run Santa Rosa for the next year takes effect Wednesday, and it leans on savings and one-time money to put off the deeper cuts the city says are still coming.
The City Council adopted the $575.9 million spending plan for fiscal 2026-27 on a unanimous vote June 16. It eliminates 27 budgeted positions, counts on nearly $9.9 million in cost-cutting, and still pulls $7.6 million out of reserves to keep services running.
Most of the savings come out of the payroll. Cutting the 27 positions accounts for about $4.1 million, and among them are six single-role paramedic jobs on the city’s mobile crisis team — slots that had been paid for with one-time money that has now run out.
The rest of the $9.9 million is a patchwork. The city restructured its pension debt through a CalPERS re-amortization it calls a “Fresh Start,” which frees up about $3.8 million. It eliminated vacant and grant-funded jobs, consolidated departments, financed fire equipment rather than buying it outright for roughly $1 million in savings, and added new charges, including credit-card convenience fees on planning and permit applications.
Even after all of that, a $7.6 million hole remains, and the city is filling it with reserves — the budget equivalent of paying this year’s bills with savings.
What the plan does not do is fix the underlying math. The general fund will carry 707 full-time positions, which the city notes is its 2010 staffing level — about 20% below the peak, even though Santa Rosa has added 12% more residents since then.
City officials are blunt that the relief is temporary. Without new revenue or further cuts, they project the deficit will grow to $9.8 million in 2027-28 and to $13.8 million or more by mid-2029. That gap could force 59 more position cuts as soon as the summer of 2027, reaching into police, fire and recreation.
To get ahead of it, the council is weighing whether to ask voters for new revenue on the November ballot. The clock is also running on an existing source: Measure Q, a sales tax worth about $25 million a year, expires March 31, 2031.
The council adopted the budget at its June 16 meeting at City Hall, 100 Santa Rosa Ave. The spending plan takes effect July 1.