Throughout the newest finances season, after realizing that the town was projecting an working deficit over the subsequent few years, Santa Barbara’s metropolis council floated the thought of rethinking its reserve insurance policies to permit the town to make any crucial adjustments or unlock cash for emergencies.
However when the potential adjustments got here earlier than the council Tuesday, they rejected all Finance Committee suggestions besides one — a technical repair that mixed the 2 separate waterfront reserve funds into one with out making any adjustments to the insurance policies or reserve goal ranges total.
The Finance Committee had advisable different choices — the town may contemplate opening a line of credit score; it may scale back its catastrophe reserve goal degree from 15 % to 10 %; or it may unlock 3 % of its Fiscal 12 months 2025-2026 finances with a plan to replenish it again to its present degree by 2030 — however all recommendations fell flat throughout dialogue.
At the moment, the town’s reserves stand at 25 % of essentially the most not too long ago adopted expenditure finances, with 15 % thought-about “catastrophe reserves” and 10 % earmarked as “contingency reserves” to handle fiscal impacts of surprising occasions.
Councilmember Meagan Harmon stated that it was vital for the town to train “cautious conservative monetary planning,” and discover a stability earlier than dipping into the reserves unnecessarily. “Why do we’ve got a coverage if we’re so versatile about it?” she requested.
“What we must always do is preserve what we’ve got going forwards,” stated Mayor Randy Rowse, “Save the established order.”
Throughout public remark, metropolis employee Zac Smith expressed his frustration with the council holding agency on its reserves, which Smith stated might be used to assist staff who’re being slowly priced out of city with low wages and a excessive cost-of-living.
“If you happen to all don’t budge, what’s going to occur within the metropolis?” Smith requested. “I imply truthfully, who’s gonna be left?”
