CITRUS HEIGHTS, Calif. — Update 11:30 p.m.
Citrus Heights City Council voted 3-2 to approve the budget proposal. The council noted that the budget may be amended if more funding comes in.
Original Story:
The Citrus Heights City Council will meet Thursday night to discuss a plan to fill a projected $4.7 million budget hole that calls for deep cuts to the city’s police department.
“To my knowledge, this is the first [budget deficit] Citrus Heights has had to deal with. We’ve never had budget shortfalls like this,” Vice Mayor Porsche Middleton said.
The budget proposal seeks to recover nearly two-thirds of that deficit with more than $3-million in cuts to the police department’s 2021-2022 budget. The CPD budget for ’20-‘21 is listed at $22.5M. The ’21-’22 proposal has around $19.5M.
To make up for the cuts, Citrus Heights will leave vacant 27 full-time positions and seven part-time positions, 26 of those in the police department. Going forward the department will also focus more on emergency services.
Because the police department makes up about 70% of the city’s budget, Middleton said the decision was difficult but ultimately unavoidable.
“In Citrus Heights, we run lean anyway. We’ve always been very fiscally conservative. I’m not really sure what else we can manage to cut back,” she said.
Citrus Heights relies heavily on sales tax revenue to stay in the black. The coronavirus pandemic accounts for most if not all of the shortfalls the city is facing.
To keep something like this from happening again in the future, Middleton said the city is looking to diversify its economy to make sure it is not so reliant on sales tax revenue. Revamping the vacant Sunrise Mall is on the list.
“Projects like Sunrise Mall, we’re working to diversify so there’s more mixed-use development there to support our economy,” she said.
Still, the recovery time from such a steep budget deficit isn’t short. Middleton said she estimates it to take at least five years or more for the city to be fully back up on its feet unless another funding source is identified.
“This is a difficult budget to approve. It’s a gut punch to all of us. We kind of saw this on the horizon after the impacts of the pandemic and we are hoping our community, our residents, will stick with us and work with us through this and be hopeful that better days are gonna come for us.”
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