North OC Times

ANAHEIM, Calif. — Record revenue from ongoing economic recovery is driving a strong Anaheim city budget with added library hours, expanded park space and more police and firefighters.

The budget is up 6 percent from a year earlier with revenue from hotel, sales and property taxes forecast to surpass pre-pandemic levels and reach new highs.

It covers the 12 months starting in July 2023 and through June 2024, referred to as fiscal year 2023-24.

The budget was adopted by the City Council at its June 27 meeting, following weeks of workshops and presentations at community meetings.

Libraries and parks

The budget includes an expansion of library hours and park space.

In February, the Anaheim City Council voted to allocate $1.3 million in the new budget for expanded hours at five library branches across the city.

Starting this month, the funding is expanding operations to seven days a week with the addition of Sundays at Central Library and Haskett Branch Library.

Canyon Branch Library and Sunkist Branch Library will add Saturdays, expanding from Monday through Friday.

East Branch Library, near Canyon Branch, will swap Saturdays for Sundays for a weekly schedule of Monday through Thursday plus Sundays.

Together, the East and Canyon branches will offer Saturday and Sunday library services to east Anaheim.

The proposed budget also includes $265,000 in funding for community use of fields at Trident Education Center, South Junior High School and Sycamore Junior High School.

The fields at all three schools are set to be used for youth sports, while Sycamore Junior High also will be used as general park space.

What’s in Anaheim’s budget: police, fire, parks

What’s in Anaheim’s budget? Everything!

The city budget covers everything in our city and touches the daily lives of everyone in Anaheim with parks, community centers and libraries, police and fire, neighborhood and road improvements, water and power, affordable housing, addressing homelessness and more.

The 2023-34 budget includes more than $20 million in new funding for additional police officers, firefighters, senior programs, parks, sidewalks and expanded homelessness services, including:

• $4.5 million for replacing sidewalks and improved landscaping
• $4.6 million for park improvements and business storefront improvements
• $3.3 million to hire 12 police officers and upgrade police dispatch consoles
• $3.2 million for a citywide strategic plan, employee pay and classification review, a special election for a proposed initiative (click here for more) and an upgrade of the city’s permitting system
• $3.1 million for expanded and continued services to address homelessness
• $2.1 million for six police school resource officers and six firefighters
• $500,000 for senior programs
• $300,000 for expanded tree trimming

At the City Council’s direction, the budget also includes additional spending on key priorities with $870,000 for three more firefighters (for a total of nine positions in the budget) and $100,000 for improvements at Paul Revere Park in central Anaheim.

BY THE NUMBERS

$2.1 billion

Anaheim’s total, overall city budget. It includes the city’s general fund for day-to-day services, a capital improvement program for big projects and enterprise funds for the city’s water and power utility, the Anaheim Convention Center, golf courses and other facilities. Anaheim’s overall budget for fiscal year 2023-24 is up 6 percent from the prior fiscal year, driven by a rebound in revenue for Anaheim’s general fund, enterprises and capital improvement spending.

$819.6 million

Anaheim’s enterprise funds. They cover city operations that collect revenue for providing services to customers. These include Anaheim Public Utilities, the city’s not-for-profit water and electricity provider, and Convention, Sports & Entertainment, which runs the Anaheim Convention Center and oversees Honda Center, Angel Stadium of Anaheim, City National Grove of Anaheim and the ARTIC transit center.

Enterprise funds make up the largest portion of Anaheim’s overall budget, with nearly all of the revenue they generate going to offset the expense of their operations or to fund improvements. Residents benefit from reliable electricity and water service and rates that are lower than in surrounding cities. Residents also benefit from visitors who come to Anaheim for conventions, sports and entertainment and spend money on hotels, shopping and dining.

Spending by enterprise funds is budgeted up 4 percent from the prior year.

$441.2 million

Anaheim’s general fund. This is the city’s main source of money for day-to-day operations, covering spending on staffing and services and programs at parks, libraries and community centers, as well as police, fire, paramedics and other city services. The general fund is up 8 percent from the prior fiscal year.

$218.2 million

Anaheim’s capital improvement program. The capital improvement program funds upgrades to parks, libraries, roadways, sewers, landscapes, electric and water systems and more. The program is funded in some cases by enterprise revenue. In other cases it’s funded by outside sources, including the state’s gasoline tax, a portion of sales tax for transportation, federal Community Development Block Grants, developer fees and other sources. The capital improvement program typically fluctuates from year to year. This year, it is up slightly from the adopted 2022-23 budget.

$76.4 million

Anaheim’s beginning reserves balance for fiscal year 2022-23, equal to 17 percent of general fund spending.

Original source can be found here.