Sacramento has 200 ways to fix its budget problems | Opinion

Sacramento faces a $66.2 million budget deficit. And, once again, the city council is proposing to pass the financial burden onto commuters, state workers and families who drive into the city.

Sacramento’s own budget team identified 200 strategies totaling $106 million in cost savings. Yet, for the third consecutive year, the council is turning to the same lazy solution: raising parking rates.

In 2024, the city council converted 300 free spots to paid ones, eliminated free Sunday and holiday parking, and raised rates. In 2025, they increased rates by 50%. For 2026, the council is proposing to extend metered hours from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m., convert 200 free spots into metered spaces and raise rates — again.

This means a weekend trip to the Crocker Art Museum, a stroll through Old Sacramento or an evening at Concerts in the Park could cost a lot more. A two-hour dinner downtown could come with a $6 to $9 parking bill.

Sacramento is a driving city with thousands of state workers commuting into the city. The rate increase and expanded hours will hurt the urban core and the very people Sacramento’s restaurants and businesses depend on to survive. Another increase in this economy will drive people towards Roseville, Elk Grove or Folsom instead of sticking around downtown.

San Jose, Oakland and San Francisco all enforce meters with a cutoff that hovers around 6 p.m. while Sacramento’s extended hours in midtown’s bars, restaurants and events-filled blocks go against everything businesses are doing to bring life back into the neighborhood. Especially now that downtown and Midtown are finally recovering after a brutal couple of post-pandemic years.

The city’s budget outlines 200 ways to raise revenues and cut costs. It could cancel its ShotSpotter contract, which costs nearly $2.9 million a year. The city’s own Community Police Review Commission recommended ending it in 2023. Alternatively, it could get serious about the $60 million annual liability bill that keeps growing year after year.

The proposed fiscal year 2026/27 budget is expected to be announced in April, and budget conversations will continue through May 2026.

Whatever path the city chooses, it’s high time city officials stop punishing the people who work and visit downtown.

Thoa Hoang holds a Master of Public Policy from Harvard Kennedy School and has worked on economic and workforce development policy at the White House National Economic Council and Department of Labor. She is one of thousands who commute into Sacramento for work.