Is Folsom’s proposed city budget in the black? Here’s what to know
Folsom City Manager Bryan Whitemyer presented his proposed 2026-27 city budget to the City Council Tuesday night, offering insight into a period of reflection for the city’s parks and recreation department.
His presentation comes after the city recently dug itself out of a roughly $3 million budget deficit last year and now projects at least $130 million in deferred maintenance on parks and facilities within the next decade.
City Council members must approve the proposed budget by the end of next month or Whitemyer’s proposal will be implemented. The fiscal year starts July 1.
If the proposed budget is approved as presented, Folsom should end the 2026-27 fiscal year with slightly more money in the general fund. After revenues, transfers and expenditures, the general fund should end at about $25.67 million, according to the proposed budget, which is up about $50,000 from the previous year.
Folsom is expected to gain about $1.55 million in additional tax revenue compared to the previous budget cycle, according to the budget proposal. However, a decline in license, permit and service charges is anticipated compared to the 2025-26 mid-year budget.
The parks and recreation department is analyzing its revenue and expenditures to see if there are ways to limit the general fund’s financial burden. That process will likely continue for the next couple of months.
“We wanted to make sure as we had rising costs in the parks and recreation department, how are we continuing to offset those rising costs?” Parks and Recreation Director Kelly Gonzalez said at Tuesday night’s City Council meeting.
If general fund cost savings are found, Whitemyer said, it could free up dollars to allocate to facilities and deferred maintenance.
“Are there programs that we may be subsidizing through general fund dollars that would be better to stop doing so so we could then invest those funds into the actual physical asset?” Whitemyer said.
Some parks and recreation expenditures are already seeing a decline with this year’s proposed budget. Community and cultural services expenditures are currently projected at about $2.5 million, down from $3.2 million in the previous budget, after remaining above $2.6 million since the 2022-23 budget. Parks and recreation facility expenditures are down more than $1 million compared to the previous budget.
Potential parks and recreation initiatives include creating a financial sustainability policy, maximizing special revenue funds, updating fees to meet market conditions and evaluating contract versus in-house staff, according to Tuesday night’s presentation.
However, other parks and recreation expenditures vary year to year, like the city’s zoo, which had general fund expenditures of about $1.65 million in 2020-21 before jumping to about $3.2 million in 2023-24 and then falling to a projected $2.8 million in 2026-27.
A public hearing on the proposed budget is slated for June 9, according to Tuesday night’s presentation.
This story was originally published May 27, 2026 at 3:15 PM.
