Santa Barbara City Council’s budget deliberations went surprisingly smoothly Tuesday, with the council approving the City Administrator’s two-year budget plan and coming to a consensus over how to allocate a combined $5 million each year toward affordable housing without making any major cuts.
Coming into the final day of deliberations, the push to increase the city’s contribution to housing to the magic $5 million mark — led by a coalition of seven organizations — was the dominant point of contention. While most of the council had voiced support for funding affordable housing, there was still no agreement on how exactly the city would find the extra money to fill the housing fund.
The passage of the Measure I sales tax last year gave the city much more breathing room with balancing the 2026-27 budget, adding an expected $15 million a year in revenues that allowed the council to make up for shortfalls in other areas and maintain dozens of positions that would have otherwise been eliminated. Without Measure I, City Administrator Kelly McAdoo explained during an earlier budget hearing, the city would have had to “lay off 34 police officers in order to balance the budget.”