Sacramento adopts $1.3 billion budget with new spending for arts, youth, homeless response
The Sacramento City Council late Tuesday evening adopted a $1.3 billion budget to direct spending for the 2021-22 fiscal year that begins July 1.
Debate over the budget lasted more than four hours, much of it focused on the City’s spending on public safety. In the end, the Council voted 7-2 in favor of the budget proposed by City Manager Howard Chan, which includes five new officers for the Police Department in divisions that are important to ensuring transparency, such as public records and professional standards. The bulk of the department’s $9.4 million increase will go toward contractually agreed upon raises and pension payments for existing employees.
Budget debate at City Council on Tuesday night
The budget contains $2.3 million for the City’s new Department of Community Response, bringing total funding for the department to $4 million so far. The department was proposed by Mayor Darrell Steinberg as a way to handle non-violent calls on such issues as homelessness and mental health with social workers rather than law enforcement. Its budget is expected to grow substantially as Director Bridgette Dean hires more staff and builds the new department from the ground up.
While public attention focused on police spending, Mayor Steinberg pointed out that the budget contains numerous investments in youth, the arts and other community priorities. The City will have much more money to spend over the coming year for workforce training, youth, helping small businesses and reducing homelessness when it adopts a spending plan for the $112 million it is receiving through the American Rescue Plan.
A young family staying at the City’s Safeground car camping location in Miller Park
“The arc of the city is changing, and the arc of our investment strategy is changing in major ways,” he said.…. I am for taking every new dollar we gain either through revenue growth or federal and state assistance and putting most of that money to work in the community, the same way we have with Measure U. But why can’t we do that and at the same time add five positions to the police department to do better background checks to make sure we’re not hiring officers who have a bad record and to help address Public Records Act requests, when we want more transparency for our police department.”
The budget adopted Tuesday includes $2.64 million to support the creative economy, including grants for artists and cultural non-profits, funding for creative neighborhood projects and money for arts education. It also contains ongoing funding for youth training programs, $1.3 million for pop-up weekend night activities for youth and free transit passes for youth. The City’s Thousand Strong paid internship program is funded at $750,000.
The 2021-22 budget contains more than $5 million in general fund/Measure U spending for homeless housing, year-round respite centers and Safeground sanctioned campgrounds with services.
Another $1 million will go for a pilot project in participatory budgeting, where the community is engaged in deciding how to spend City dollars.
