Free holiday parking among items on the chopping block as Sacramento seeks to close $66M deficit

SACRAMENTO – The City of Sacramento released Tuesday details on its proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal year as it faces a projected $66 million deficit .

City officials say the $1.6 billion proposal, while getting rid of a number of job vacancies, won't eliminate any filled positions.

"It has always been my goal to balance the budget by making strategic decisions instead of across-the-board cuts and to minimize – to the greatest extent possible – any impacts to core City service and City employees," City Manager Howard Chan said in a statement.

Tackling Sacramento's homeless issues also remains top of mind in the budget, city officials say. As outlined in the budget, the city would continue to operate 1,350 shelter beds. Funding would also continue for the city's Affordable Housing Fee Credit program and the Incident Management Team.

However, a number of cuts look to be on the table.

Sacramento's program that allows youth to ride Regional Transit for free is on the chopping block. Free electric vehicle charging at city parking garages is also set to be eliminated.

"By providing free transit it was one way of really helping those schools get students into class," said SacRT spokesperson Jessica Gonzalez.

Gonzalez said this year they will provide 4.2 million rides to students. The city had been funding the Ride Free RT program since October 2019.

"Some parents don't have either an automobile or they don't have the ability to drop the student off because they have to work," Gonzalez said.

The budget blow is leaving SacRT searching for funding from the county and school districts to keep kids riding free.

Gonzalez is confident they will be able to secure this funding and continue the service.

Further, the holiday reprieve from paying for parking could be going away.

A number of increases are also being proposed under the budget, including increasing revenue from parking citations and parking meter collections and increasing parking rates at public parking garages.

"Why would they do that to us? We already pay so much in taxes," said Stephanie Guerrero who lives in Sacramento.

Guerrero said paying more for parking downtown would deter a lot of people, especially those who are lower income.

"I don't think raising the parking meters is really going to help anything as far as the budget goes, I think that's ridiculous," said Jason Minlow, owner of The Sacramento Sweets Co.

Minow said there is already enough parking problems in Old Sacramento, and this added cost could hurt business.

"I think there's other issues and the way they spend it," Minow said.

Minow said issues like the homeless crisis. That the city said is still a top priority.

The city has released a detailed summary of the budget on its website .

Sacramento's Budget and Audit Committee, along with the city council, will be reviewing the budget proposal on May 7. More hearings will also be held throughout May until the final budget is adopted in June.