To prepare for the adoption of the City’s Fiscal Year 2022-2023 Annual Budget, the City held several workshops–its most recent one on April 19–with the Council and the community to discuss the City’s financial position and the preparation of the City’s FY 2022-2023 Budget and Capital Improvement Plan (CIP).
The purpose of the April 19 workshop was to provide the City Council with an overview of the General Fund and Enterprise Fund Baseline Budgets, a discussion of proposed decision package items, and an opportunity to request changes prior to the upcoming public hearing in June. The City will host a public hearing on June 7, with budget adoption scheduled for June 21, before implementing the finalized budget on July 1.
The proposed General Fund Baseline Operating Budget totals $109.14 million and represents a 4.9% increase in spending compared to the current budget. The proposed General Fund baseline operating budget also includes the use of $1.0 million from the "Section 115 Trust," which reduces the amount of the CalPERS Unfunded Accrued Liability (UAL) payment for the Sworn plan from the General Fund.
"It is the City of Napa's ongoing goal to improve the level of services and programs we provide to our community. We are always grateful when the community directly provides their input on how we can better work toward that goal," said City Manager Steve Potter. “While we are encouraged to see our revenues coming back, it remains to be seen how sustainable that increase will be. Further, costs continue to increase beyond current revenues, and so the City will need to remain vigilant with managing and monitoring the budget.”
During the February Priority Setting workshop, the City Council identified a number of priority areas to guide staff in building the budget for the next fiscal year. Those priorities are:
- Hiring/Workforce Stability
- Adopt and Implement General Plan and Housing Element
- Economic Development and Recovery
- Housing/Homelessness
- Climate Change
Each of the recommended decision packages brought to the City Council for consideration aligned with at least one of the above-noted priorities. With workforce stability being one of the primary themes of next year’s budget, proposed staffing adjustments were included in the decision packages. The City will continue to work diligently to bring back staffing levels to better serve the community, acknowledging that the hiring process for the number of positions that need to be filled will take time.
In order to maintain financial transparency, the City has hosted three related workshops, including the April 19 session, and will continue to abide by the following schedule:
- Public Hearing - Tuesday, June 7
- Budget Adoption - Tuesday, June 21
- Implementation - Friday, July 1 (start of the next fiscal year)
- Financial Monitoring and Reporting - Ongoing
Interested community members may learn more about the City’s budget plans by viewing the documents below: