Mayor Steinberg pushes to spend $40 million from budget surplus for affordable housing
With sales taxes coming in higher than what was expected right after the Covid-19 pandemic began, Mayor Darrell Steinberg said Tuesday he would push to use $40 million for affordable housing and $6 million on youth.
Renovated affordable units in the former Bel-Vue Hotel in downtown Sacramento
Mayor Steinberg made his proposal Tuesday at a meeting of the Budget and Audit Committee as part of a mid-year review of the 2020/21 budget based on actual revenues and expenditures. The document presented by City Manager Howard Chan said the general fund/Measure U fund balance was $42.6 million higher than expected.
The committee voted to send the mayor’s proposal to the City Council next week when it considers the mid-year budget adjustments. The $40 million would be used to start a trust fund to build desperately needed affordable housing.
The money would allow the City to begin jump starting affordable housing right away, without having to take on bond debt, which Mayor Steinberg had previously proposed and had been endorsed by the City Council— pending a general fund stress test and review by the City Treasurer. The mayor’s goal is to eventually create an $100-million affordable housing trust fund, which could still involve City bonding in the future.
Mayor Steinberg said that since the higher-than-expected revenues were a one-time windfall, the money should be appropriately spent on one time expenditures like the Affordable Housing Trust Fund.
A memorial to 9-year-old Makaylah Brent in Mama Marks Park
“I think a $100 million-housing bond would be a great thing for the City of Sacramento, but I also recognize there’s nothing good in and of itself to indebting the City if there’s another way,” Mayor Steinberg said.
.Another $6 million would go to youth spending categories that could include mental wellness, academic support, violence intervention and workforce development. Championed by Vice Mayor Jay Schenirer, the effort is called the Children’s Budget and is being developed in partnership with the community.
Mayor Steinberg proposed that an additional $1 million go to fund a participatory budget process in which community members decide how money should be spent.
In addition to Mayor Steinberg’s proposal, the mid-year budget contains investments in a number of significant Council priorities, including:
$2 million to help stand up the Office of Community Response, a new department created to reduce the need for a police response to homelessness, mental health and other social service calls. This adds to $3 million previously allocated.
$7.5 million for the relocation of the North Sacramento Library to a new and expanded location on Del Paso Boulevard.
$4.5 million for the long awaited Sacramento River Parkway Bike Trail on the river between Garcia Bend Park and Zacharias Park.
$4.4 million for the City’s climate action efforts, including three new full time positions to advance the recommendations of the Mayors’ Commission on Climate Change.
$1.5 million for improvements to Mama Marks Park, where a 9-year-old girl was fatally shot during a weekend of gun violence in October.
