The Poway City Council has approved a $125 million 2025-26 budget that fully funds operations and includes a robust capital improvement program, officials said.<\/p>\n
Overall, the city maintains a healthy budget that includes $72.78 million in revenues and $76.23 million in expenditures, Craig Schmollinger, the city\u2019s financial director told the council at the June 17 meeting.<\/p>\n
\u201cPoway has benefitted from steady financial guidance from the City Council,\u201d Schmollinger said. \u201cAlong with staff\u2019s prudence in financial management best practices over several decades, it has resulted in long-term fiscal stability for the city.\u201d<\/p>\n
The $125 million operating budget and $43 million nonoperating budget that includes $28.4 million in capital improvement projects was approved by the City Council 4-0, with Councilmember Tony Blain absent.\u00a0The operating budget represents an increase over the current budget of $10 million, or 8.8%, and the nonoperating budget reflects an increase over the current fiscal year of $14.6 million, or 51%.<\/p>\n
Mayor Steve Vaus praised the budget for funding \u201cvirtually every department\u2019s wish list\u201d while maintaining a low sales tax rate.<\/p>\n
The budget document attributes the negative general fund balance to required and strategic spending.<\/p>\n
One is paying $1.76 million for the city\u2019s share of the initial phase of the Los Penasquitos Lagoon restoration project. The other is using $6.8 million to pay off debt incurred in the early 2000s to finance the construction of the Poway City Hall office building and City Council Chamber, Schmollinger said.<\/p>\n
The debt that originated with a bond and was refinanced in 2012, could have been paid through 2033, but paying it off early can save the city nearly $800,000 in interest costs, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThrough our analysis, we\u2019ve identified this as the highest and best use of the $6.2 million in general fund funding,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat this will do, is free up debt capacity if needed in the future and help maintain or increase the financial rating of the city.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the expenditures side, the largest expenses go toward providing public safety services with a projected $17.2 million or 25% of the general fund being spent on the city\u2019s fire department and $16.3 million or 23% of the fund being spent toward law enforcement, which the city primarily contracts with the San Diego County Sheriff\u2019s Office for services.<\/p>\n
Other expenses include $13.4 million or 19% for parks and trails maintenance; $7.5 million or 11% for development services and housing; $5.1 million or 7% for human resources, risk management and finance departments; $4.2 million or 6% for public works; and the $6.2 million for strategic retirement of debt noted previously.<\/p>\n
The budget states the city will maintain a general fund reserve equivalent to 45% of the budgeted annual general fund operating expenditures. The projected reserves total $25.95 million, an increase of $1.8 million from the previous budget in 2024-25.<\/p>\n
\u201cPoway has the highest general fund reserve policy in the county,\u201d Schmollinger said. \u201cReserves help ensure a healthy balance of funding for current requirements and services while ensuring fiscal sustainability in the future, including for unknown potential needs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Items to watch for in the new fiscal year include impacts from federally mandated tariffs, a high inflation rate of 3.8%\u00a0 as reflected in San Diego\u2019s Consumer Price Index, and potential water rate increases, Schmollinger said. He added that the San Diego County Water Authority, which provides most of the city\u2019s water supply, is predicting a rate increase of 10.4% to 12% in January 2026.<\/p>\n
Included in the city\u2019s 2025-26 Capital Improvement Program are 32 ongoing and 46 new projects that require $27.9 million, said Poway Civil Engineer Tracy Beach. Projects include improvements and maintenance to parks, sidewalks, facilities, street safety, and water, sewer and drainage infrastructure improvements.<\/p>\n
Among projects being funded at least partially in the budget are Poway Center for the Performing Arts upgrades, including renovating an elevator, replacing leaking pipes and installing a safety net to protect performers on stage from falling into the orchestra pit. The Poway Unified School District will reimburse the city 35% of the construction costs as part of a joint use agreement, Beach said.<\/p>\n
Also, a sidewalk is planned from Acton Avenue to Garden Road Elementary School, and two adaptive traffic management systems will be installed to improve traffic flow and safety beginning with Poway Road.<\/p>\n
Other projects in the works include a bicycle park pump track that is in the preliminary design stage for a site to be determined; pickleball courts also at a site to be determined; and a new restroom and fencing at Community Park.<\/p>\n
Work is also expected to continue on the Water Infrastructure Program that includes a clearwell bypass project, clearwell replacement project, and treated water facility project that is intended to \u201cimprove the reliability, redundancy and resiliency of the city\u2019s potable water system,\u201d Beach said.<\/p>\n
Poway Budget Review Committee Chair Vanessa Springett told the council the \u201cbudget reflects a strong financial position, thoughtful planning and a clear commitment to the community.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vaus noted that the turnout from the public for the council\u2019s review of the budget was relatively low when it could be considered one of the city\u2019s most important meetings.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt shocks me, but then I think, this is just another boring Poway budget where revenues exceed expenses by a significant margin,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s a remarkably wonderful and boring place to be, I suppose.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Poway City Council has approved a $125 million 2025-26 budget that fully funds operations and includes a…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":20006,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,18712,18713,3549,7264,9656,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-20005","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-pomerado-news","12":"tag-pomerado-news-news","13":"tag-san-diego","14":"tag-sandiego","15":"tag-uncategorized","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-united-states-of-america","18":"tag-unitedstates","19":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","20":"tag-us","21":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114757290461722871","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20005","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20005"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20005\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}