Sacramento voters to decide in March if city should spend $10 million a year on youth
City of Sacramento voters will decide in March whether to direct the city to set aside more than $10 million each year for youth programs.
Sacramento City Council decided Tuesday to place the measure on the March 3 primary ballot, instead of the Nov. 3 general election.
The measure, which received more than 38,000 signatures last summer, would require the city to set aside 2.5 percent of the general fund each year for youth programs, starting in July 2021, said Darrell Roberts, co-founder of the Roberts Family Development Center. That would equal about $10 million to $12 million in new funding for youth each year, until 2031, when it would expire and voters could reconsider it, Roberts said.
A committee in which half the members are under the age of 24 would recommend how to spend the money each year, pending City Council approval, Roberts said. The funds could go to nonprofits or to the city, but must be for new programs and initiatives the city is not already doing.
With new Measure U sales tax revenue, the city has committed millions in new money for new youth programs. For that reason, Mayor Darrell Steinberg will not be endorsing the ballot measure, said spokeswoman Mary Lynne Vellinga.
“He thinks this ballot measure is motivated by a laudable desire to make sure the city supports youth, but he has concerns about the way it is written and how it might affect the city budget going forward, particularly if we face another recession,” she said in a statement. “For instance, the measure apparently does not count the current sizable amount of money that the city spends on youth, but imposes an additional set percentage requirement on top of that amount.”
In the current budget, which started July 1, the city is spending $3.7 million to expand youth-programming activities, work-force development and after-school sports programs in the Natomas, Robla and Twin Rivers school districts. The funding, proposed by City Manager Howard Chan, also expands community center hours. The city also hired new full-time employees for youth programming.
In addition, the city is spending $650,000 from its budget surplus on summer camps, extended pool and library hours, and Summer Night Lights programs; and $1.9 million for the Del Paso Heights Sports Complex, proposed by Steinberg.
The city also allocated $1 million to allow Sacramento students to ride Regional Transit buses and light rail for free, which was Councilman Jay Schenirer’s idea, and $14.4 million toward building the North Natomas Community Center and Aquatic Complex, championed by Councilwoman Angelique Ashby.
It’s possible additional Measure U funding will go to youth services, if two citizen committees recommend doing so, and the council approves.
But Roberts wants to ensure a significant amount of money continues to go to youth, even after fiscal year 2024-25, when the city’s pension payments rise to more than triple what they are now.
The funding could give new small nonprofits a chance to compete with the larger more established ones to be able to really flourish, Roberts said.
“There are some outstanding organizations coming down the pike that now have a way to be supported in a way I never was supported,” said Roberts, whose nonprofit was founded in north Sacramento 19 years ago. “You can change an awful lot of things with $12 million invested in our kids every day.”
Roberts said it was important to get the measure on the March ballot because if approved, officials would have nearly a year to prepare until city officials release the fiscal year 2021-22 budget.
Schenirer agreed.
“If this does pass, and I think there’s a very good chance it will, I think the city needs adequate time to set up the infrastructure to do this right,” Schenirer said.
