NR050226 Sunnyvale Proposes Fiscal Year 2026-27 Budget

Release #05 02 26

Contact:
Alia Wilson, Deputy PIO
408-731-0716
[email protected]

SUNNYVALE PROPOSES FISCAL YEAR 2026-27 BUDGET

Balanced plan responds to community priorities, increased service demand,
and economic conditions

SUNNYVALE, Calif. - The City of Sunnyvale released its fiscal year (FY) 2026-27 Recommended Budget and Resource Allocation Plan, a proposal that maintains and shores up core services while advancing strategic initiatives. It achieves this through conservative forecasting and disciplined financial management, ensuring Sunnyvale remains a competitive place to live, build, hire, and innovate.

Many California cities are facing service cuts due to flattening revenues. But Sunnyvale's long-standing fiscal practices - affirmed by recent stellar credit ratings from Moody's - allow the City to continue making critical investments in its future. The budget also balances increasing service demands and rising costs of labor, materials and essential maintenance.

A key highlight of the budget is the City's lean approach to staffing. Despite an increasing population and a higher demand for services, the City has maintained a highly efficient workforce. This budget includes a net new 14 positions, bringing the total additional staff over the last five years to 55. This represents just a 6% growth in total staffing over this period.

"Adding staff is both a fiscal and operational challenge that we do not take lightly," City Manager Tim Kirby noted in the budget message. "By growing our team moderately and strategically, we ensure that we stay responsive to our residents' needs while remaining fiscally sustainable for the next 20 years."

Investments in this budget also align with the City Council's five strategic goals - Responsive Government, Welcoming Community, Sustainable City, Housing Solutions, and Modern Infrastructure.

• New Public Safety Resources: The budget adds four public safety officer positions that would create a specialized, proactive response team to address emerging crime trends and neighborhood quality-of-life issues.
• Emergency Management: A dedicated civilian manager will be added to the emergency response program to provide stable, long-term oversight of critical services.
• Community Maintenance: Funding is included to support street sweeping, managing abandoned shopping carts, and increased power washing in the downtown area. It also adds staff positions to maintain new parks and open spaces.
• Housing and Homelessness: Allocating $43 million over 20 years to fund services for the unhoused, which will be guided by the City's Strategic Plan to Address Homelessness currently under development.
• Sustainability: Continuing investments to implement the Climate Action Plan and $26.7 million in additional funding to operate the City's new microtransit shuttle over twenty years.
• Modern Infrastructure: Significant allocations for pavement rehabilitation and bicycle lane upgrades and maintaining a $20 million investment for future options to enhance library infrastructure and service delivery.
  
  

Upcoming Budget Workshop

The community is invited to learn more about the City's fiscal health and provide input on budget priorities.

WHAT: Budget Workshop

WHEN: May 19 at 11 a.m.

PURPOSE: For City staff to review the current economic climate and discuss budget recommendations for the 2026-27 fiscal year with the City Council.

The full Recommended Budget totals $717.7 million across all funds. This includes a $425.1 million operating budget, $292.6 million in projects and other expenditures, and $69.4 million in contributions to reserves.

The City Council will consider the recommended FY 2026-27 budget at a public hearing on June 2 and vote on whether to adopt it at the public hearing on June 16.

Read the recommended budget on the City's website.

###