Berkeley's budget plan includes really tough' cuts, but City Council signals support

Berkeley leaders plan to balance a nearly $30 million budget deficit through cuts affecting homeless services, community health programs, pothole repairs, and small business assistance. The plan would reduce staffing, including layoffs and elimination of vacant positions, amid rising costs and slow hiring. A worst-case proposal would close a North Berkeley fire station and reduce police positions, increasing 911 response times. Council members indicated few alternatives after years of using one-time budget maneuvers. The city must adopt a two-year budget by the end of June. Officials are also pursuing a 0.5% sales tax increase that would raise more than $9 million annually to keep the station open and reduce other cuts, though additional layoffs and vacancy reductions would still occur.

"Members of the Berkeley City Council are seen in a 2025 file photo. Credit: Ximena Natera, Berkeleyside/CatchLight Local Berkeley leaders' plan to balance a nearly $30 million budget deficit includes cuts to homeless services and community health programs that advocates said would harm the city's most vulnerable residents. It would force cutbacks on everything from pothole repairs to small business assistance. City employees would lose their jobs at a time of rising costs and sluggish hiring. And a worst-case-scenario proposal to close a North Berkeley fire station and slash police positions would lead to longer 911 response times."

"These are not easy decisions for any of us, Mayor Adena Ishii said at the meeting. But after years of closing budget gaps with one-time maneuvers, Ishii said, the cuts are meant to address the underlying structural deficit to make changes that are really tough, but hopefully will create the ability for us to have a sustainable budget moving forward. Ishii and other council members signaled their support Tuesday for the budget balancing plan City Manager Paul Buddenhagen unveiled last month, even as they said they hoped to avoid layoffs, service cuts and the potential closure next year of the Berkeley Fire Department station on Marin Avenue."

"Along with the steps Buddenhagen proposed, officials are also pursuing a plan to put a 0.5% sales tax increase before voters this November that would raise more than $9 million per year enough to keep the station open and avert other cuts to fire, police and parks staff. Even if the sales tax is approved, though, the city would still lay off the equivalent of 20 full-time employees, and cut another 130 vacant positions, under Buddenhagen's plan. Fire Chief David Sprague described shuttering Fire Station 4 as"

Read at www.berkeleyside.org