The Burlingame City Council passed its budget for the upcoming 2025-26 fiscal year — which balances the city’s basic expenditures but must plan for increasing capital improvement funding — at its meeting June 16.
The city’s revenue will likely sit at $92.5 million for the upcoming year, more than enough to cover the city’s planned expenditures of $85.5 million.
However, a planned $9.9 million transfer to the capital improvement fund — which will focus on the city’s potable water system and sanitary sewers this year — plus more than $3 million for debt services, will leave Burlingame at a $3.6 million net operating deficit.
Money from the unassigned fund balance will be utilized to cover that deficit, leaving the fund at $700,000, Finance Director Helen Yu-Scott said.
The city’s general fund five-year forecast is predicting a general fund deficit increase for the 2026-27 fiscal year of up to $4.5 million. It’s then projected to slowly decrease, with a deficit of only $1.2 million by the 2029-30 fiscal year.
Vice Mayor Michael Brownrigg emphasized that the city was making an investment choice into long-term capital projects and that the operating budget for Burlingame’s essential services was still in a healthy place.
“I think we all struggle with the notion of a deficit and using that language because I think most people, when they hear that … think of it on an operating basis,” he said.
“On an operating basis, we’re healthy. It’s the investments we’re deciding to make in our infrastructure.”
Yu-Scott did say, however, the city would need to look for alternative revenue sources to bolster its unassigned funding balance in the long term. At a budget study session May 21, City Manager Lisa Goldman said the city might consider raising its transient occupancy tax from 12% to 14% in coming years.
Currently, Burlingame’s transient occupancy tax is its second-highest revenue source and will bring in a projected $22.8 million for the upcoming fiscal year. Its most fiscally beneficial revenue source is projected to be property taxes, at $35.8 million.
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