Essential SB

The City’s General Fund, which pays for many of its core services like police, fire, emergency medical response, parks, libraries, street repairs as well as other services and infrastructure operates on an annual budget of approximately $201 Million. The operating deficit in Fiscal Year 2024 is $3.8 Million, and in 2025 the deficit grows to $7.1 Million. For this year, City departments have identified $2.7 Million of expenditure reductions to help balance the budget. The rest of the shortfall is covered by the City’s reserves. To learn more about the City's budget, please visit Budget & Reporting.

The City has worked for years, even prior to COVID, to manage its finances and stretch its existing revenues. All City Departments have made reductions. Many or most have staff vacancies, including many in public safety. Prior to COVID and 2020, the City did not have to take substantial measures to balance its budget. However, with COVID, the City’s Sales Tax and Hotel (TOT) Taxes declined substantially, and overnight – across all funds the City has lost over $30 Million since 2019. The City was able to control and reduce costs by nearly eliminating all hourly employees, delaying projects, and reducing services. For some perspective, this has eliminated over 130,000 hours of work in the Parks and Rec Department – equal to roughly 60 workers. It has additionally impacted lifeguards, forced the library to close for 36 hours each week, and other items. 

There are as many as 1,000 people experiencing homelessness in Santa Barbara on any given night, including veterans, seniors, and families with young children. The City is working every day to help individuals access critical services, emergency shelter, and housing. This includes mental health support, substance abuse treatment services, and job training to help people transition away from or stay off the street, as well as to ensure our business districts, parks, and other public areas are safe for everyone.

The rising demands for emergency response – growing by thousands of calls each and every year – has placed increasing pressure on the City’s first responders, who are far fewer in number than they were a decade ago. A 5% budget reduction would mean: slower response times for 911 Police/Fire emergency response, fewer on-duty police officers, fewer on-duty firefighters, and additional challenges to recruit and retain personnel. 

The City has a high priority on addressing the on-going housing challenges. We partner with non-profit agencies and others to support affordable housing policies and programs. The Council has passed a Citywide Short-Term Rental Enforcement Program to ensure compliance with City regulations and make rental units available again to long-term city residents. Additionally, the City Council created a Local Housing Trust Fund to support the production of new affordable housing units and the preservation and rehabilitation of existing low-income housing. 

The City of Santa Barbara is 173 years old and has aging infrastructure which needs to be repaired and upgraded. Even before recent rain storms which have damaged roads, independent road engineers have recently found that nearly 30% of our local city streets are in poor or very poor condition. The City also has community centers, fire and police stations, swimming pools, libraries to maintain, and and in need of essential health and safety repairs. The projected deficit will mean further delays to necessary repairs and deferred maintenance of this aging infrastructure. 

Visitors and those who work in Santa Barbara contribute to maintaining our City’s public safety and infrastructure whenever they shop in Santa Barbara or patronize local establishments. Nearly half of sales tax dollars collected in Santa Barbara come from tourists and visitors from surrounding areas.