Brady PieperThe City of Encinitas, California, is considering a new budget for fiscal year 2025-26, which includes more than $113 million for the city’s operations and maintenance.
The new budget, recently discussed in an Encinitas City Council work session, seeks to ensure the financial and capital stability of the city while maintaining services and public works. The work sessions are designed as a collaborative space for the public, stakeholders and lawmakers to refine the operating and capital budgets before presenting a full budget proposal to city governance.
The $113.2 million working budget represents a 4.6% increase from the current fiscal year. Concluding the fiscal year, city officials anticipate a surplus of $6.5 million and a net increase of $2.1 million to the General Fund.
Accounting for a significant portion of the city’s revenue, property and sales taxes would contribute approximately 77% of this funding. The remaining funding will be sourced from a variety of revenues, including an estimated $11.2 million from service charges, $5.6 million from the transient occupancy tax and a combined $9.4 million from other taxes and revenues.
For the city’s expenditures, city officials proposed $105 million in spending for the next fiscal year, prioritizing nearly half of this funding to public health and safety initiatives, such as law enforcement, fire and marine safety. Encinitas would invest the rest of the funding into a combination of developmental services, parks and recreation, public works, engineering, information technology and non-departmental projects.
Contracting and services would be supported by a combined $46.3 million between law enforcement and non-law enforcement. Non-law enforcement contracts and services, such as building inspections and park maintenance, would receive 25% of the city’s total expenditures.
The city utilizes bond sales to offset the cost of capital, operating and maintenance initiatives, offering increased flexibility when planning and developing projects. The proposed
budget indicates the city would be required to pay $5.5 million in the next fiscal year to cover existing debt services, including, most notably, entering into the final years of 2017 Park Bonds.
The Encinitas City Council gathers on the second, third and fourth Wednesdays of each month, in accordance with Resolution 2024-115. A second budget workshop is scheduled for April 23.
The council will evaluate the proposed capital budget for fiscal year 2025-26 before adopting a final budget, which is expected on June 11.
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