Lisa Soghor, Culver City’s Chief Financial Officer, began by thanking her staff for the presentation on the Fiscal Year 2025-2026 at the Budget Presentations meeting on May 19, 2025. But then she said that “as soon as the book was produced…it needs updating. The budget numbers are correct, it has a lot of moving parts.”
The city’s budget is looking at both immediate and long term shortfalls; expenditures from the General Funds exceed revenues by $14.8 million. The structural deficit is currently expected to exceed $30 million.
Focusing on the city’s “strategic goals for the next five years… we are looking to maintain existing services, and shore up the newly implemented housing and homeless services, and take on ongoing operating costs…This is not a sustainable trajectory, as there is not capacity for new commitments.”
Offering a ‘pie’ chart to illustrate the general overview, the $177,597,909 General Fund is made up of revenue streams from Sales Tax, Property Tax, Business Tax, Property Transfer Tax, Utility Tax, Transient Occupancy Tax, Charges for Services, Fines and Forfeits, and Earnings. Soghor noted that many of these revenue sources were subject to very wide swings, and could be unpredictable from year to year.
With the city taking on “almost $40 million dollars in capital improvements projects,” there was both a need for departments to voluntarily reduce expenditures, and for the city to seek new revenue.
The quarter-cent sales tax coming up for a special election in August is expected to increase revenue, but not enough to close the gap.
Budget Presentations will continue at City Hall on May 20, beginning at 3 pm.
Judith Martin-Straw