Sacramento town hall focuses on how to tackle city's massive budget deficit
SACRAMENTO — Sacramento city leaders are facing a $66 million budget deficit, and we are now learning more about how those cuts could take shape.
The city held a town hall meeting in Meadowview's Pannell Community Center on Wednesday night, where city finance director Pete Coletto described the bleak situation and listened to community feedback on solutions.
Ron King runs a nonprofit inside south Sacramento's Florin Square.
"I've been here 22 years," King said.
His program, The Gardens, serves 2,000 people a year suffering from mental and physical health problems.
King is concerned the city's massive budget deficit will prevent some of those clients from getting the help they need.
"Less grants, less funding that's going to come to nonprofits and continue these services," King said.
The city manager is asking every department – including police, fire, and parks – to provide a proposed 15% cut to their budgets. The city council will ultimately decide what is saved.
"Nothing is off the table, but what is on the table for me is making sure that we protect our most underserved communities, and that's south Sacramento," Councilmember Mai Vang said.
For King, the frustration comes from what he describes as the city's poor spending plan.
The $66 million deficit comes with no drop in revenue, only approved payments it can't cover.
"You're definitely going to have people that need services and the services won't be there," King said.
Now this south Sacramento community is bacing for budget cuts. Who will feel the biggest impact?
The proposed budget will be released by the end of next month. The budget will have to be balanced by July 1.