Santa Rosa city officials to ponder spending cuts, tax hikes

Santa Rosa officials will hold a special meeting Thursday to ponder how to close the widest city budget gap in years, one created in large part by the October wildfires.

The City Council will huddle up with its executive team most of today at the clubhouse of the Bennett Valley Golf Course to chart a path through the bramble-filled fiscal year ahead. The meeting is open to the public and runs from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

The budget the council passed in June included a $14.2 million deficit, which the City Manager Sean McGlynn made clear is unsustainable and will require significant cuts, new revenue or some combination of both to resolve.

The lack of clarity about how much money the city can expect in reimbursement from FEMA, when it can expect to receive it, whether the city will put a sales tax measure on the November ballot, and whether voters would support it are all issues clouding the city’s financial picture.

The meeting takes place in advance of a council meeting Tuesday, July 24, where the city is slated to decide what type of revenue measures - a sale tax hike, bed tax boost, or property tax increase for housing - it plans to place on the Nov. 6 ballot.

You can reach Staff Writer Kevin McCallum at 521-5207 or kevin.mccallum@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @srcitybeat.