14 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY JUNE 15-21, 2023 www.montereycountyweekly.com DOLLAR$ AND $ENSE Sometimes the city services we use are obvious—say, signing up for swim classes at a city pool or borrowing an audiobook from your local library. But some services in Monterey County’s 12 cities, like storm drains and sidewalk repairs, might be less conspicuous. Expenditures are split among essential needs and quality-of-life benefits in a budgeting process. Every city has to approve a budget for the next fiscal year (July 1, 2023-June 30, 2024) by the end of this month (some already have). Throughout the process, city leaders have different ways of prioritizing. In Marina, councilmembers rank 126 possible projects with a score of 1 through 126, and the most popular “want-tofund” projects advance alongside the “have-to-fund” needs. In Salinas, the public was invited to workshops starting in January, early in the budget process, to allocate “Salinas bucks.” Of course, the wishlist is longer than there is revenue, and so city leaders make tough decisions about what they will or won’t be able to pay for. Much of the cost of running a city comes from the cost of human capital—salaries and benefits to the people who make our cities run. Some cities have gotten creative with shared services to save costs. For example, the Monterey Fire Department’s chief and administration serve Monterey as well as Carmel, Pacific Grove, Sand City, Monterey Regional Airport, Naval Support Academy and military community La Mesa Village. Monterey anticipates spending $18.9 million on its fire department next year; the other jurisdictions under contract will contribute about $8.5 million. In general, city managers and finance directors are taking a cautious economic view. “We are projecting just very minor increases this year,” Pacific Grove Assistant City Manager Tori Hannah says. “There are the potential signs of recession; we’ve taken a conservative approach.” That conservative approach, as shown in a table on p. 20, shows P.G. and some other cities projecting expenditures greater than revenues; that can still produce a structurally balanced budget thanks to fund balances meant as a cushion (P.G. projects ending the next fiscal year with $11.3 million still left over). The table on p. 20 shows a side-byside city comparison of staffing costs and of big line items for cities’ general funds, but not all of the cities provide equivalent services—for example, not all cities have their own fire chief, and not all cities have a library or a gym or a campground. Beyond spending, cities might also be thinking about generating additional revenue, through tax measures or economic development. Relief funds helped cities weather the worst of the Covid-19 pandemic—the American Rescue Plan Act funneled $84 million of federal dollars to local cities in 2021—but those one-time funds must be spent by 2024. The cities below are listed in order from most to least populated. -Sara Rubin Salinas The city of Salinas will start the 202324 fiscal year with a conservative budget, foreseeing an economic slowdown in a city that derives more than half of its revenue from sales tax. “Overall, the forecast assumes the next 10 years’ revenue growth will slow compared to the last five years,” the draft budget reads. Measure G, a sales tax approved by voters in 2014, is currently set to sunset in 2030; if it’s not extended, revenues then will drop by an estimated $35 million annually. Various departments, including police, finance, and library and comMonterey County’s 12 cities are carving up their spending plans as they prepare for a new budget year that starts July 1. By Tajha Chappellet-Lanier, Celia Jiménez, Pam Marino, Rey Mashayekhi, Sara Rubin and David Schmalz
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