Santa Rosa adopts $575.9 million budget with 27 job cuts

Santa Rosa’s City Council unanimously adopted a $575.9 million budget on June 16, approving the city’s fiscal-year 2026-27 spending plan while eliminating 27 positions and using reserves to close the current operating shortfall.

The fiscal year began July 1, 2026. The vote gives the city an adopted budget for its operations, but the plan does not resolve the larger deficits Santa Rosa projects in the years ahead.

What the council approved

The adopted budget covers $575.9 million in city spending. As part of the plan, 27 positions are eliminated. The source material does not provide a complete department-by-department schedule showing where each eliminated position is located.

The city is also drawing on reserves to close the current operating shortfall. The exact amount of reserves being used was not stated in the available source material.

Those measures address the immediate gap in the city’s operating finances. They also mean the adopted plan depends partly on one-time or limited resources and staffing reductions rather than on a new long-term revenue source identified in the approved materials.

Deficits grow in the forecast

Santa Rosa projects a $9.8 million deficit in fiscal 2027-28 without new revenue or additional cuts. By mid-2029, the projected deficit is at least $13.8 million under the same conditions.

The figures are projections, not final future budget results. They show the financial decisions that remain ahead after the June 16 vote: the city may need to consider new revenue, further spending reductions or both as it prepares later budgets.

For residents, the practical consequence is that the new fiscal year starts with a spending plan in place, but the city’s longer-term operating balance remains unsettled. The 27 eliminated positions are part of the budget adopted now; the larger potential reductions described in the reporting have not been approved as part of this action.

Services remain a future pressure point

Further cuts could affect police, fire and recreation services if Santa Rosa does not secure new revenue or identify other reductions. That is a potential future effect, not a finding that those services are being cut under the adopted budget.

The Santa Rosa Police Department and Santa Rosa Fire Department are among the city departments identified in the budget discussion, but the available sources do not establish that police or fire cuts have been approved. The same distinction applies to recreation services.

That distinction matters because the council’s unanimous vote settled the current budget adoption, while the projected deficits point to later policy choices. The city’s financial position will continue to be examined through its budget process and council actions rather than through the June vote alone.

What happens next

The city’s official legislative-record portal contains Santa Rosa City Council meeting and agenda records for 2026. Those records provide the public record for the budget action and a place to follow subsequent fiscal oversight.

The next major issue is whether Santa Rosa can manage the projected $9.8 million gap in 2027-28 and the at-least-$13.8 million shortfall projected by mid-2029 without additional service reductions or new revenue. The approved budget provides the city’s plan for the fiscal year that began July 1, but it leaves those longer-term choices open.