Costa Mesa council to discuss preliminary $155M budget Tuesday

Costa Mesa City Council members will spend Tuesday evening poring over the city’s preliminary $155-million budget for the next fiscal year.

The initial spending plan is balanced “for the coming fiscal year without the use of general fund reserves and provides the highest level of service to the community within existing financial resources,” City Manager Tom Hatch wrote in a budget message this week.

As a whole, the proposed budget for 2017-18 is almost $10.4 million more than in the current fiscal year.

A large part of that jump is “due to an increase in pension costs, assumption of increased number of filled positions, increases in utilities and certain other operating costs,” Hatch wrote.

Additional revenue, such as growth in collected fees and taxes, is expected to offset the rise in spending and keep the general fund budget balanced, according to the city.

For instance, a recent decision to have the Costa Mesa Fire and Rescue Department assume responsibility for providing all local ambulance transportation services is expected to bring more money into the city’s coffers.

Costa Mesa also anticipates seeing new revenue as a result of permit fees paid by medical marijuana businesses allowed under the voter-approved Measure X.

That measure allows businesses that research, test, process and manufacture some medical marijuana products to open in a specific area of the city — north of South Coast Drive, west of Harbor Boulevard, south of MacArthur Boulevard and east of the Santa Ana River, though not in South Coast Collection.

Cultivation and retail sales of marijuana and marijuana products are still prohibited.

The preliminary budget also includes proposals to increase assorted fire and parks fees that are well below the amount needed to fully offset costs, according to the city.

Spending on capital improvement projects is also projected to go up — from just north of $16 million in the current budget to almost $19.6 million for the next fiscal year.

That amount includes funding for major projects such as the ongoing reconstruction of Fire Station No. 1 on Royal Palm Drive and the planned redevelopment of Lions Park to accommodate a new 22,860-square-foot library.

Tuesday’s council budget study session starts at 5 p.m. in Conference Room 1A on the first floor of City Hall, 77 Fair Drive.

[email protected]

Twitter @LukeMMoney