It’s another difficult budget year in Fresno, mayor says. But less ‘tension?’
Fresno city officials say that despite a “challenging” budget year, they expect to pass a record-breaking $2.55 billion budget with relatively little “tension.”
That’s in part because Mayor Jerry Dyer has planned with councilmembers individually to discuss their priorities for the fiscal year 2027 budget.
“I’ve already met with each of the council members individually, shared with them what’s in this budget,” Dyer said during a media budget presentation Wednesday. “There should be no surprise to them. I also have a pretty good feel in terms of what their needs were.”
There’s likely less tension because about half of the Fresno City Council will leave the end of the year. Three council members — Council President Nelson Esparza and Miguel Arias and Annalisa Perea — are either terming out or pursuing higher office. A fourth, Mike Karbassi, is a frontrunner for a Board of Supervisor seat and could also vacate his seat.
Though Dyer expects city revenues from property, sales and room taxes, as well as business license fees, to all increase by single-digit percentage points, “they’re not trending upward at the same pace as our expenditures,” he said.
The city had an estimated $34.5 million deficit driven by a mix of inflation, contract obligations, labor agreements, facility leases, maintenance and software agreements. This is an increase of about $11 million that Dyer previously shared in a Feb. 26 mid-year budget review.
To close the gap and balance the budget, Dyer said the city asked all departments to cut expenses by 5%.
“This was extremely difficult. It is was the third year in a row that we conducted this exercise,” he said.
All departments, except for fire, will also be asked to hold a staffing vacancy or attrition rate of 6.18%.
Despite the tight budget year, Dyer stressed that there will be no staff layoffs and that “essential services were not impacted.”
Dyer will present the proposed budget to the council on Thursday and said he expects the budget to pass during the June 23 meeting.
‘Lack of tension’ in budget process?
Esparza, who will term out at the end of the year, said in an interview with The Bee on Wednesday morning that though he hasn’t yet seen the budget, he’s “fairly optimistic that the process will be somewhat smooth.”
This is a far cry from previous years, such as in 2023, when some council members held a news conference to say Dyer’s budget was “dead on arrival” for not including enough to address the city’s crumbling infrastructure.
Esparza said he will be looking closely at how the administration balanced the budget, particularly related to potential service impacts across the city. He’ll be looking for any potential opportunities for additional infrastructure projects.
He said the council never takes the mayor’s budget at “face value” and usually makes several changes. However, he credits the smoother budget process to Dyer’s collaborative approach with the council.
“If there’s a lack of tension, it’s due to basic communication and willingness to collaborate,” Esparza said.
Both Dyer and Esparza also credited the $100 million city street paving initiative, “Pave Now, Pay Later,” for alleviating a lot of the districts’ needs that would have previously been requested as budget motions.
“Surprisingly, most of the council members that I met with, we met, in my budget, almost every one of their needs — and part of it has to do with the fact that we have ‘Pave More Now’ money. ... We have Measure P money,” Dyer said. “But there are going to be other motions that they make.”
Esparza said he expects outgoing councilmembers like himself to wrap up and wind down their ongoing initiatives. If outgoing councilmembers have pending to-dos by the end of their term, it will be incumbent upon their successors to finish them.
“When it comes to City Hall, nearly anything can change,” he said. “Priorities change; elections have consequences.”
What’s in the budget?
Dyer highlighted several initiatives in his fiscal year 2027 budget, including:
- $1 billion to support 470 major capital improvement projects, including a 911 communication center, a fire station, the regional fire training center, as well as a $42 million to support the city’s first senior center
- $74.8 million in road maintenance and sidewalk repair under the Pave More Now initiative, Measure C and some state funding
- $2.1 million for council district infrastructure projects, in addition to $2.1 million that will carry over from FY2026
- $500,000 to increase trash removal and pressure washing in the Tower District and downtown
- $553,000 to plant 1,000 new trees, an initiative spearheaded by Councilmember Tyler Maxwell
- $300,000 for Advance Peace from the cannabis community benefit fund
- $225,000 for contracts to support spay and neuter for an estimate 1,800 cats and dogs, in addition to animal center services
- $100,000 to support various special events and the Historical Society as part of the county’s 250th anniversary celebration
Dyer said that between fiscal years 2026 and 2027, the city has invested more than $140 million to improve the city’s roads and sidewalks.
“More money than we have spent in decades, and perhaps in our history, to improve our roads and sidewalks in Fresno,” he said.
The general fund will also absorb previously grant-funded positions in the police and fire departments as well as the City Attorney’s office. It will also add a second Homeless Assistance Response Team in the police department to respond to constituent complaints.
The city is also preparing to raise water and sewer rates for the first time in a decade later this year, Dyer told The Bee in February. While he didn’t have a timeline for when this could appear before the council, it could sometime after the budget process. Dyer said the city will make sure the rollout is gradual, methodical and communicated to residents in advance through public meetings.
“I think you saw in the city of Clovis, they had a substantial increase this coming year, which sent some shock waves, I think, throughout that community,” Dyer said. “We want to avoid that, if we can.”
This story was originally published May 13, 2026 at 2:47 PM.
