Sacramento County supervisors reject Isleton loan request amid city bankruptcy risk
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Sacramento County rejected Isleton's $800K loan due to budget constraints.
- Isleton faces $4.7M in debt; bankruptcy or disincorporation remain risks.
- Supervisor pledged continued talks while urging financial responsibility from Isleton.
The Sacramento County Board of Supervisors rejected a $800,000 loan request from the city of Isleton on Wednesday afternoon.
The loan, which was proposed by Isleton’s city manager to help starve off a potential city bankruptcy or disincorporation, would have spanned across 10 years and gone toward a $500,000 bridge loan and other debts the city has to pay back.
Due to financial restraints in the county’s revised 2025-2026 fiscal year budget, the supervisors decided to follow the county staff’s recommendation to disapprove the loan. Throughout the board’s discussion, supervisors said they wanted to “keep the door ajar” to other solutions to the city’s financial crisis.
Supervisor Pat Hume said that he will work with the city of Isleton’s staff on their “financial future.” He said he wants to avoid the residents of Isleton having to vote on whether the city should disincorporate.
“If they choose to disincorporate, whatever outstanding debt does not just go away; it now transfers over to the responsibility of the residents of Isleton,” Hume said. “So, for what I’m just going to characterize as poor decisions that were made not necessarily with the residents input or involvement, they would be ultimately left holding the bag on that.”
Isleton currently owes more than $4.7 million to several creditors, according to a letter from City Manager Jon Kennedy. Additionally, Isleton must pay back $195,000 to the the Employment Development Department for unpaid taxes, penalties and interest culminated from June 2017 to September 2013; $145,000 to the the Small Cities Organized Effort; and $600,000 to Sacramento County’s Sheriff Office.
Before the Board of Supervisors unanimously approved its revised budget without the loan, Chair Phil Serna asked Isleton Mayor David Kent what actions Isleton would take to prevent more financial crises. In response, Kent said the city will reverse the “legacy of shame and non compliance and isolation” and compiling with county collaboration.
“Council members are not Green Berets, they’re not Navy SEALs. They’re neighbors,” Kent said. “And what you need is the catalyst of education, you need a change of will, and that is what it looks like. Its going to become part of the Isleton history.”
This story was originally published September 3, 2025 at 2:58 PM.
