The old and new buildings of Sacramento’s City Hall stand downtown on July 12, 2018.
RANDALL BENTON
Sacramento Bee file
A proposal to balance Sacramento’s $66 million budget deficit would slash dozens of employees, hike parking fees and create 200 new metered spaces, according to staff presentation released Thursday.
Nearly every department has been asked to scour its budget for cost-saving measures to reduce spending by 15%. The options released Thursday were the city’s first proposals and will be revised for months before the City Council is scheduled to approve the budget in June.
The list, included on the agenda for Tuesday’s council meeting, includes cutting programs, slashing vacancies and laying off employees. The union representing the city’s largest number of employees was notified earlier this week that some of its members could be let go, prompting a union representative to denounce the layoffs.
“Trying to balance budget on the backs of lowest paid employees seems to me to be a morally reprehensible choice for budget priorities,” Martin said.
Here are some of the proposals listed in the staff presentation:
Increase parking meter rates. Expand parking meter operating hours to 10 p.m. across all metered areas. Add 200 new metered spaces in “high impact” areas. Establish a “fee structure” for the Residential Permit Parking program. End the police department’s contract with SpidrTech, a text and email service for officers to chat with victims. Decrease the operating hours for the city’s community centers and pools. Cut two positions in the Office of Public Safety Accountability, the oversight body of the police department. Reduce after-school programs in community centers. Cut lifeguards and an assistant pool manager, which are not full-time positions. Close all four wading pools. Cut two senior deputy city attorney positions. Cut six customer service agents who serve the 311 Contact Center, a call line for residents to report homeless encampments, potholes and illegal dumping. Cut about 23 park maintenance workers, replacing them with a third-party contractor.
If approved, the increase to parking fees would be the third in three years. The council in 2024 and 2025 approved raising parking fees to offset multimillion budget deficits.
The police and fire department employees also significant downsizing in the proposal, but spokespeople for each agency said no workers will be laid off.
The fire department will modify deployment models, consider temporary brownouts and change overtime availability, spokesman Capt. Justin Sylvia wrote in a statement.
“The service reductions being evaluated focus on minimizing community impact while preserving firefighter safety, training, and maintaining the core services Sacramento residents rely on every day,” the statement said.
Layoffs last struck City Hall after the Great Recession, an economic downtown that began in 2007. From 2008 until 2013, officials slashed 1,300 full-time positions.
The first involuntary layoffs occurred in 2008 when the Development Services Department laid off 16 employees. The layoffs ended in 2014 when city passed Measure U, a half-cent sales tax, increasing revenues to prevent cuts to programs, services or employees for the first time in six years, according to previous Bee reporting.
The city’s expenses are growing at a faster rate than its revenues. Inflation, retirement liabilities, new homelessness programs and labor increases have put pressure on the budget, according to the city.
The council is scheduled to meet throughout March to hear from department leaders about potential cuts.
This story was originally published February 26, 2026 at 2:41 PM.
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Ishani Desai is a government watchdog reporter for The Sacramento Bee. She previously covered crime and courts for The Bakersfield Californian.