FAIRFIELD, Calif. — Fairfield, like many other cities and the state of California, is facing budget problems going into the 2025-26 year.
The city anticipates a $20 million budget deficit if cuts aren’t made — a conversation they’re openly having with the public 6 p.m. April 9 at 1717 Rex Clift Lane to try and find a fix for.
“City council wisely determined that we need to seek a balanced approach to solving the deficit,” said city manager David Gassaway in a statement to ABC10. “This includes a combination of cuts and new revenues.”
He says the deficit happened for three main reasons: expenses increasing, using short term funding from COVID and creating new programs with said funds, and underfunding reserve and replacement accounts for city programs.
“These can no longer be ignored without creating more severe issues in the future,” said Gassaway. “We are currently seeking to reduce expenditures by 5% while concurrently looking at (other) revenue increases.”
Some proposals the council will consider include potential fee increases and two measures for the November ballot: a hotel room tax and a business license tax update, which hasn’t happened since the 80s.
While Gassaway says the hope is to minimize changes residents see, nothing is concrete until the council makes decisions.
“There will be some level of impact due to service reduction,” he said. “Hard decisions must be made on where cuts can be made.”
Changes have already been made to try and mitigate increasing the deficit like decreasing spending and using reserve funds to help cover the rest of this fiscal year.
The city also announced in March that they would no longer pay credit card convenience fees for residents come May.
As for how those in Fairfield could help the issue at hand?
“Our residents can make a difference simply by shopping local in Fairfield, not elsewhere or online,” said Gassaway. “Shopping at our mall, retail stores and small businesses means that our residents’ hard-earned money stays local and pays for the services the city provides.”
Fairfield is one of many cities going through similar issues. Sacramento is facing a $66 million budget deficit for the next fiscal year and California itself may be $73 billion under the Legislative Analyst's Office Feb. 20 and most updated revenue forecast.
Fairfield will offer a community meeting to discuss the budget at the Police Training Center at 1717 Rex Clift Lane April 9 at 6 p.m.
