San Ramon To Review Spending Plan

San Ramon’s budget story is not really about one meeting. It’s about a city trying to slow a mismatch that has been building for years — costs rising faster than revenue. The April 28 City Council workshop was the spending side of that problem. Staff walked council through projected FY2026-27 expenditures, reserve levels, debt service, and capital spending before the city’s next big checkpoint on May 12, when a preliminary budget is due back to council. (sanramon.ca.gov) ### What happened at this stage? The April 28 workshop focused on expenditures and the capital improvement program. Budget Manager Yuliya Elbo covered draft General Fund spending, transfers out, reserve calculations, and other fund budgets. Finance Director Jennifer Wakeman then shifted to capital projects and what the General Fund i(sanramon.ca.gov) balancing rules. (sanramon.ca.gov) ### What are the actual numbers? The draft points to roughly $76.8 million in General Fund operating expenditures before transfers out, up about 2.6% from the prior year. Personnel remains the big driver at 72.2% of departmental General Fund budgets, or about $55.4 million. Police services show the biggest single spending increase at 6.35%, while Public Works rises about 0.98% to $20.14 million and City Administration rises 8.6% to about $8.68 million. (patch.com) ### Why does parks spending jump so much? Parks and community services is projected to rise nearly 25% to $12.83 million, but that headline number is a little misleading. The city says much of that change comes from an accounting shift — instructor payments are now booked as expenditures instead of being netted against revenue. So the line item looks much bigger, but that does not automatically mean San Ramon suddenly expanded parks programming by a quarter. (patch.com) ### If spending is up 2.6%, why is there still stress? Because the real problem is structural, not just this year’s increase. San Ramon says that over the past five fiscal years, revenues have grown about 4% annually while expenditures have grown about 9% annually. That is the core gap. A 2.6% spending increase this year is more restrained than that long-run pattern, but the city is still carrying the weight of those past trends. (sanramon.ca.gov) ### Where is the cushion coming from? A lot of the breathing room comes from Measure N, the 1% local sales-tax increase voters approved in November 2024. For FY26, the city allocated $10 million of Measure N revenue to cover the structural deficit and another $1.9 million to discretionary spending. For FY27, Measure N revenue is now (sanramon.ca.gov)as temporary support while San Ramon works on a longer-term resilience plan. (sanramon.ca.gov) ### Are reserves still healthy? For now, yes. The city expects to end FY27 with a General Fund balance of about $32.3 million, which would leave reserves at roughly 39.5% of operating expenditures. That stays above San Ramon’s 36% reserve target. But it is also down from the prior year, which tells you the city is still leaning on its cushion even while trying to hold the line. (patch.com) ### What rules is council using to make cuts or tradeoffs? Staff has framed the whole budget around three simple guardrails: no new programs or positions without tradeoffs, no spending money the city does not already have, and no unsustainable long-term commitments. Those rules matter because they narrow council’s choices. A new service or staffing request now has to come with an offset somewhere else, or with a clearly supported revenue increase. (sanramon.ca.gov) ### What happens next? The next formal milestone is May 12, 2026, when council is set to review the preliminary FY27 budget. Patch’s meeting preview also pointed to May 26 for the proposed budget presentation, with final adoption required by June 30 so the budget can take effect July 1. In other words — the spending review is done, but the real political choices are still ahead. (sanramon.ca.gov) ### Bottom line? San Ramon is not in an immediate budget crisis. But it is in a slow squeeze. Measure N bought time, reserves are still above target, and this year’s spending growth looks more controlled. The catch is that none of that fixes the underlying math unless the city can keep expenditure growth permanently below revenue growth. (sanramon.ca.gov)