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The Sacramento County Recommended Budget for Fiscal Year (FY) 2026-27 has been released. The Board of Supervisors will begin hearings on the Recommended Budget at 9:30 a.m., Wednesday, June 10 in Board Chambers at the Sacramento County Administration building, located at 700 H Street in Sacramento.
The public is encouraged to attend the hearings and be heard on any items in the budget, either in-person or through written comments. Budget hearings will also be telecast live on Metro Cable 14 and the County’s website.
The hearings will continue beginning at 9:30 a.m. through June 11 and 12, if necessary.
Scheduled Presentations
(Order is Subject to Change)
- IHSS Public Authority Budget
- Public Comment on IHSS Public Authority Budget
- Deliberation and Approval of IHSS Public Authority Budget
- County Executive’s Budget
- District Attorney
- Sheriff
- Public Defender
- Regional Parks
- Human Assistance
- Child, Family, and Adult Services
- Health Services
- Public Comment
- Board Deliberation/Approval of Recommended Budget and Capital Improvement Plan (CIP)
Spending Plan
FY 2026-27’s $8.9 billion spending plan is a decrease of 2.8% compared to the FY 2025-26 Adopted Budget. Of the total $8.9 billion budgeted:
- $3.2 billion is in Enterprise and Special Revenue Funds (utility rates, fees and other dedicated revenue)
- $4 billion is in General Fund (funded with $1 billion in discretionary revenue, $1.7 billion in reimbursements from restricted funds, and $1.3 billion in Federal, State and fee revenue dedicated to specific purposes)
- $1.7 billion in Restricted Funds (amounts transferred to the General Fund to reimburse eligible expenditures in General Fund departments)
Budget Process/Challenges
The County projected a $101 million deficit at a Board meeting in January, half of which is due to impacts from HR 1, otherwise known as the “Big Beautiful Bill.” Based on that projection, the Board directed the County Executive’s Office to ask departments to identify the impact of 2.5% funding reductions as part of their FY 2026-27 budget submissions.
The vast majority of departments provided those reductions in a thoughtful way that minimized impacts to service levels and avoided layoffs whenever possible.
“I appreciate the leadership and creativity our departments demonstrated throughout this process,” said David Villanueva, County Executive. “Across the organization, teams took a careful look at their operations, identified opportunities to streamline where possible, and eliminated vacant positions that are no longer needed to sustain current service levels. Their work helped us meet these budget targets while they committed to continuing critical services for our residents.”
General Fund Available Balance
The County’s General Fund is its discretionary revenue, which means the Board of Supervisors has flexibility when deciding how to use those funds.
The General Fund beginning available balance (which represents unspent funding from FY 2025-26) is estimated at $46 million. This is a 37% reduction compared to the FY 2025-26 available balance of $73 million, which was used to fund ongoing spending.
Because of that imbalance combined with the impacts from HR 1, departments were asked to make reductions.
Budget Reductions
The FY 2026-27 General Fund reductions total $57 million, which will result in the deletion of 194.5 full-time equivalent positions.
For all departments, except for the District Attorney’s Office, the recommended budget reflects position reductions that would avoid layoffs by either eliminating vacant positions or positions that have vacancies within the same classification elsewhere in the County.
Significant reductions, identified by departments and recommended by the County Executive, include:
Child, Family and Adult Services: $5.7 million for 19 positions.
Child Support Services: $1.8 million for 16 vacant positions due to frozen State funding levels.
Correctional Health Services: $4.1 million reduction in base budget and deletion of 10 vacant positions.
District Attorney: $4.1 million reduction in base budget and the deletion of 15 positions. (Note: The District Attorney’s Office identified that 14 of the positions were filled. However, as of May 18, 2026, vacant positions exist within the department in the classifications recommended for deletion.)
Health Services: $5.4 million reduction to base budget.
Human Assistance: $2 million for 38 vacant positions due largely to impacts from HR 1.
Public Defender: $2.6 million for 11 vacant positions and contract expenditures due to the expiration of State grant funding supporting the post-conviction unit, the juvenile pre-trial support program, and the felony mental health diversion program.
Regional Parks: $0.8 million reduction to the base budget and deletion of seven vacant positions.
Sheriff: $13.7 million reduction in the base budget and the deletion of 48 positions. Incumbents in these positions will be moved to other vacancies in the department.
Budget Growth
General Fund growth totals $91 million, with $44 million of the amount funded with the County’s discretionary funds. Given the shortfall in discretionary funds relative to funding departments’ base budget needs, budget growth (or “Net County Cost growth”) is focused on the County’s legal, financial, regulatory and policy obligations and providing mandated services.
The most significant growth includes:
Correctional Health: $11.7 million ($7.7 million Net County Cost) to support the County’s obligations under the Mays Consent Decree.
Health Services: $34 million Net County Cost to provide services under the County Medically Indigent Services Program (CMISP) and provide funding for the Healthy Partners program.
Homeless Services and Housing: $3 million total ($1.7 million Net County Cost) to provide additional funding to align shelter operations with Board-adopted community standards and implement a pilot Safe Parking program with one-time grant funding.
Data Processing: $0.6 million Net County Cost to initiate a Request for Proposals (RFP) process to replace the County’s outdated Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system.
The budget letter and a complete set of budget documents may be found online and at the County Executive’s Office, 700 H Street, Room 7650.
The Recommended Budget is a preliminary spending plan; the Revised Recommended Budget will be presented to the Board in September for deliberation and adoption.
For more information about the County budget, including the budget process/timeline, key budget terms/glossary, the Budget Explorer Tool and more, visit the Sacramento County Office of Budget and Debt Management website.