NR060126 Sunnyvale Adopts Fiscal Year 2026-27 Budget

Release #06 01 26

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

Sunnyvale Adopts Fiscal Year 2026-27 Budget

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

SUNNYVALE, Calif. - At last night's (June 16) regular council meeting, the City Council adopted the fiscal year (FY) 2026-27 Budget and Resource Allocation Plan. The plan maintains and shores up core services while advancing strategic initiatives. It achieves these goals 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 measured approach to adding staff. 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.

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 20 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.

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 drawn from reserves.

Read the budget on the City's website.

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