All-funds adopted budget
Approximate FY2027 citywide budget across the General Fund, enterprise funds, special funds, and capital work.
A Future Here · Governing discipline
Fiscal honesty
The budget is the operating plan for public trust.
Santa Barbara should make promises it can afford, protect the services residents count on, rebuild its margin of safety, and show the public what every major decision will cost over time.
CAMPAIGN PHOTO — ALEXANDER REVIEWING A BUDGET OR LISTENING NEAR CITY HALL
The fiscal honesty standard
What does it cost?One-time + ongoing
Who pays?Named funding source
Who runs it?Staffing + owner
How is it sustained?Maintenance + reserve effect
What is happening
A balanced year does not remove the need for long-term discipline.
Santa Barbara adopted an approximately $730 million citywide budget for Fiscal Year 2027. The City reports that the General Fund is balanced for the year while also warning that future budgets will require continued discipline and that reserves need to be replenished.
That is the honest picture: Santa Barbara has real assets and substantial resources. It also faces rising service costs, infrastructure needs, labor obligations, economic uncertainty, and limited room for permanent promises that do not come with permanent funding.
Every public promise has a fiscal shadow.
Current public context: City of Santa Barbara, FY2027 Adopted Budget, July 1, 2026.
Balanced today
The General Fund is balanced for FY2027. The city still says continued discipline is needed for future budgets.
Services are the point
Public safety, streets, parks, libraries, permitting, housing work, and public spaces all depend on recurring capacity.
Reserves need rebuilding
Reserves are the city's protection against disasters, recessions, lawsuits, revenue shocks, and urgent service needs.
Why it matters
City finance becomes visible in the services people use every day.
Budgets can feel abstract. The consequences are concrete. Financial drift shows up as slower service, deferred repairs, reduced capacity, surprise fees, weaker reserves, and public promises that cannot be maintained.
Public safety
Reliable emergency response requires trained people, equipment, stations, dispatch, and long-term staffing capacity.
Streets and infrastructure
Delayed maintenance becomes hidden debt. Planned repair is usually less expensive than emergency replacement.
Housing and permits
A slow city is an expensive city. Delay raises project costs, blocks homes, and postpones business openings and revenue.
Parks and libraries
Community services require predictable operating money, maintained facilities, and honest staffing decisions.
Downtown vitality
Storefront activity, parking, tourism, housing, safety, and public confidence shape both city revenue and city costs.
Emergency readiness
Reserves create room to respond to fires, storms, economic shocks, and urgent needs without destabilizing core services.
Alexander's position
Fiscal discipline is how we protect services, keep promises, and leave the next Council more room than we inherited.
This is stewardship, not austerity. Santa Barbara should invest where the public value is clear and stop pretending that every good idea is affordable, staffable, or sustainable in its current form.
AffordCan the city pay the full one-time and continuing cost?
StaffWho owns the work, and does the city have the people to deliver it?
MaintainWhat will facilities, equipment, contracts, and systems cost over time?
MeasureWhat public result will justify the expenditure?
ExplainCan residents understand the tradeoff before the vote?
What Alexander would do
Four tools for a city budget people can trust.
Each action has a plain meaning, an operating step, and a public measurement. The purpose is better decisions, not another layer of paperwork.
01
Before the vote
Public Fiscal Note
Plain meaning: every major proposal shows its full financial shadow before Council acts.
- Show one-time cost and continuing cost separately.
- Name the funding source and any effect on reserves.
- Identify staffing, maintenance, contract, and facility needs.
- Explain what will be delayed, reduced, or displaced when tradeoffs exist.
How voters will know: the percentage of major Council items published with a complete fiscal note, plus annual reporting on forecast accuracy.
02
Margin of safety
Reserve Recovery Plan
Plain meaning: treat reserves as emergency and service protection, with a visible path to rebuild them.
- Adopt a clear hierarchy for when reserves may be used.
- Pair every non-emergency withdrawal with a replenishment schedule.
- Publish a risk-based reserve target and annual progress.
- Avoid using one-time money to create permanent obligations without an exit plan.
How voters will know: unrestricted General Fund reserves as a share of spending, withdrawals made, replenishment completed, and years remaining to the adopted target.
03
Protect what works
Core Service Reliability Budget
Plain meaning: organize budget choices around the service levels residents experience.
- Connect funding to named service standards and workload.
- Publish quarterly indicators for public safety, streets, parks, libraries, cleanliness, and permitting.
- Identify vacancies, deferred maintenance, and capacity gaps before they become emergencies.
- Review programs that cannot show a clear public result.
How voters will know: response times, work-order completion, permit timelines, staffing vacancies, facility conditions, and service targets reported together.
04
The other balance sheet
Public Assets for Public Value
Plain meaning: every major city-owned site, lease, parking asset, and facility should have an explicit public purpose.
- Classify assets as Protect, Serve, House, Earn, or Activate.
- Publish key lease terms, responsibilities, public benefits, and review dates.
- Identify vacant or underused assets and the lawful options for each.
- Evaluate financial return alongside housing, service, cultural, and community value.
How voters will know: annual asset and lease reporting, underused sites moved to a clear decision path, and public benefits delivered against commitments.
CAMPAIGN PHOTO — STATE STREET, A LOCAL STOREFRONT, OR A DISTRICT 6 PUBLIC SPACE
The District 6 lens
Downtown is fiscal infrastructure.
District 6 is where city finance becomes visible. State Street, storefronts, housing, parking, safety, public spaces, tourism, and city services all meet here. A downtown that people use repeatedly supports local jobs, local businesses, public confidence, and the revenue base that funds services across Santa Barbara.
Manage State Street as an operating system. Assign responsibility for safety, cleanliness, maintenance, access, activation, and results.
Help local businesses open and remain. Clearer permits and predictable timelines reduce cost and bring activity and revenue online sooner.
Connect housing to downtown health. More residents near local businesses create repeat customers and a stronger daily economy.
Measure the full picture. Track business openings, vacancy, foot traffic, parking performance, public-space conditions, and service costs together.
How voters will know
The Fiscal Trust Dashboard
The first step is a public baseline. The second is a target. The third is regular reporting that shows whether decisions are producing the promised result.
Balanced recurring operations
Recurring revenue compared with recurring expense
Report quarterly
Reserve recovery
Reserve level, withdrawals, replenishment, and distance to target
Report annually
Full-cost decisions
Major proposals accompanied by complete public fiscal notes
Report monthly
Reliable core services
Service standards, response times, vacancies, and backlog
Report quarterly
Productive public assets
Financial return, public benefit, condition, and next decision date
Report annually
Downtown performance
Openings, vacancy, activity, parking, public-space conditions, and service cost
Report monthly
Targets should be adopted after the City publishes a consistent baseline and identifies the department responsible for each measure.
First 100 days
Start with the operating rules.
A councilmember cannot personally run the Finance Department. A councilmember can build a majority for clearer standards, direct public reporting, fund the work, and hold the organization accountable for delivery.
Introduce the Public Fiscal Note standard
Set the minimum information required before major spending, tax, fee, lease, or program decisions.
Request a Reserve Recovery workshop
Clarify the reserve target, use hierarchy, emergency rules, and replenishment path in public.
Launch the public asset inventory
Identify major properties, leases, parking assets, facilities, their purpose, and next decision date.
Publish the first Fiscal Trust Dashboard
Start with available data, name missing baselines, and assign responsibility for completing the picture.
Common questions
Clear answers about taxes, cuts, reserves, and priorities.
Does a balanced FY2027 budget mean the fiscal problem is solved?
No. It means the General Fund is balanced for the current fiscal year. The City itself says future budgets will require continued discipline and that reserves need replenishment. Fiscal honesty separates a one-year balance from long-term recurring balance.
Do you support raising taxes?
I will evaluate any proposal on its specific purpose, duration, legal structure, household impact, accountability, and whether the City has first shown what existing revenue produces. Residents deserve the full case before being asked for more.
Are you proposing service cuts?
My priority is protecting core services through discipline. That means setting priorities, reducing duplication and drift, reviewing programs against results, and avoiding permanent commitments without permanent funding. Across-the-board cuts are a blunt substitute for governing.
Why are reserves so important?
Reserves are the city's margin of safety. They create room to respond to disasters, recessions, lawsuits, revenue shocks, and urgent service needs without destabilizing the rest of the organization.
What does “public assets for public value” mean?
City-owned land, leases, parking assets, and facilities should have a clear purpose and a visible public benefit. Some should be protected, some should deliver services or housing, some should earn revenue, and some should be activated. The public should be able to see the choice and the result.
Why is State Street part of a fiscal honesty page?
Because downtown affects business activity, parking, tourism, housing, safety costs, public-space maintenance, and confidence in the city. State Street is a design question, a daily-life question, and a fiscal question at the same time.
Public sources
Read the City's own financial materials.
The campaign should distinguish verified public facts from policy judgment. These official City resources provide the current adopted-budget and reporting foundation for this page.
FY2027 Adopted Budget announcement
City summary of the budget adopted June 30, 2026, including the approximately $730 million all-funds total and the City's statement on future discipline and reserve replenishment.
Open the City source →Budget & Reporting portal
Adopted resolutions, fee schedules, budget materials, actual revenue and expenditure tools, audits, and accountability reports.
Open the City portal →Santa Barbara deserves a city government that tells the truth about money, protects core services, and leaves more room for the future.
ALEXANDER STOEBER · DISTRICT 6
