Sonora To Vote On New $14-million Budget

Sonora, CA — The first item of new business on Tuesday’s Sonora City Council agenda is to review and vote on the proposed 2022/2023 operating and capital improvement budgets for the new fiscal year that begins July 1st.

Combined, they total just over $14-million. The budget consists of forecasts based on data collected over recent years and the latest fiscal modeling.

An Executive Summary of the budget notes, “As the city continues through the ongoing pandemic, and the uncertain financial future, the lasting effects on the city, its businesses, and residents, will not be known for some time.  We remain cautiously optimistic about the pandemic endgame, but as we have now seen with the current geopolitical climate and economic turmoil there continues to be uncertainty, with the possibility of a recession ever-increasing.”

Providing a further snapshot, it states, “Over the prior eighteen months we have seen sales tax revenues perform better than anticipated while other service-based revenues and tourism-related revenues have declined.  In March 2021, the American Rescue Plan was signed, from which the City received $581,786 in Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds in FY21/22 and will receive an additional $581,786 in FY22/23 to address many of the financial challenges caused by the pandemic.  Specifically, this funding provides revenue backfill for pandemic-related shortages in City revenues from FY20/21 to FY23/24 and without this revenue, the city would be dipping into reserves or cutting services. For the FY21/22 budget year, the city will have approximately $233,000 of remaining ARP funding and will have a year-end General Fund balance in excess of $3 million.  This fund balance gives the city time to plan for challenges that are inevitably coming.  As we forecast budget over the next few years, we can see that this mismatch of revenues over expenditures will increase, and budgets will be more difficult to balance.”

You can read the full 99-page budget summary by clicking here.

The council will also vote on any supplemental budget requests. Tuesday’s meeting starts at 5pm at Sonora City Hall.