The Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors will hold budget workshops starting at 9 a.m. April 9 and 10, and, if necessary, on April 12 in the County Administration Building, Fourth Floor Hearing Room, 105 E. Anapamu St.
The county said the theme for the Fiscal Year 2024-25 budget is Prudence and Progress, which acknowledges that careful fiscal planning in prior years and continued restraint in developing the FY 2024-25 budget will enable the county to maintain its core operations and continue to advance local programs, projects, and other organizational goals.
The public is encouraged to follow the proceedings via the county’s website, YouTube, and cable TV Channel 20. To watch in Spanish, Cox and Comcast subscribers can enable SAP in their language settings, or watch in Spanish via the County’s YouTube en Español.
Remote testimony and public comment will also be available at the Joseph Centeno Betteravia Government Administration Building, 511 E. Lakeside Pkwy., Santa Maria, and virtually via Zoom by following the instructions found in the agenda.
“Next year’s budget is largely status quo, as the county continues to be judicious in our budgeting but forward-looking,” said County Executive Officer Mona Miyasato. “We are striving to maintain services that residents count on, and fulfill our highest priorities and commitments, while proactively planning for, and addressing, likely constrained fiscal conditions in the coming years.”
The county’s preliminary operating budget is estimated at $1.59 billion, a 6.7% increase compared to the FY 2023-24 adopted operating budget. With a projected slowing of General Fund revenue growth, compared to prior years, the staff are recommending the release of ongoing discretionary reserves set aside in prior years to avoid reductions of mandated and essential services. This would be the sixth consecutive year without any service level reductions.
“The County’s past fiscal prudence – setting aside ongoing General Fund revenue – has allowed budget gaps to be filled next year without a reduction of service, but expansions of service are not recommended next year absent new revenue or reductions elsewhere,” said Budget Director Paul Clementi.
“Several years of board decisions to set aside ongoing funding in anticipation of economic uncertainty have prepared the county to address coming fiscal challenges related to increasing operational costs and General Fund revenue constraints and will allow for continued fiscal stability in the coming year,” he said.
Each department will be giving a presentation outlining its budget during the workshops. The submitted department budgets and revenue estimates are available in the Budget Workshop Material 2024-2025 posted online.
This year, the workshops include a special issue report on Maintenance and Capital Projects. The public is encouraged to watch the workshops and provide input on ideas staff develop to fund vital services.
“This will definitely be a challenging budget cycle,” said Board Chair Steve Lavagnino. “In previous years, we have been able to add programs and services based on the public’s input, however, this is a year in which we will be striving to simply maintain our current level of service.
A full schedule for the budget workshops can be found here: FY 2024-25 Budget Workshop Schedule.“