Overview
Fairfield's biennial budget plans all-funds revenues and transfers in of $382,065,374 against expenses and transfers out of $413,512,319 for FY 2025-26 — a $31,446,945 draw on fund balances, driven by capital projects ($56,806,981) and capital outlay ($11,204,464). The City Manager's message frames the total FY 2025-26 expenditure budget at approximately $415 million, with the General Fund at about 37% of the total, 598 full-time-equivalent positions funded with 24.5 positions frozen, and a structural deficit of approximately $11 million per year that the city bridges with onetime measures while maintaining the General Fund reserve at 23% against a 20% policy goal.
Source: City of Fairfield Budget and Financial Plan, FY 2025-26 and FY 2026-27, City Manager's message and all-funds summary.
At a glance — FY 2025-26 adopted
Source: City of Fairfield Budget and Financial Plan, FY 2025-26 and FY 2026-27.
General Fund — FY 2025-26 and FY 2026-27 adopted
General Fund revenues and transfers in are $152,349,777 for FY 2025-26 against expenses and transfers out of $152,576,045 — a net change of −$226,268, essentially balanced for the first year. FY 2026-27 is where the structural gap lands: revenues of $145,939,454 against expenses of $157,002,725, a net change of −$11,063,271. The General Fund tax detail for FY 2025-26 sums to $123,499,757: property taxes $21,103,201; former RDA property taxes $14,610,935; motor vehicle taxes and fees $31,239,486; sales taxes $24,971,286; Measure P taxes $13,362,925; utility and franchise taxes $9,952,112; cannabis tax $850,937; other taxes $7,408,875. The remaining $28,850,020 of the $152,349,777 total is licenses and permits, intergovernmental revenue, charges for services, investment income, and transfers in.
| General Fund expense by category, FY 2025-26 | Adopted |
|---|---|
| Personnel | $107,736,664 |
| Internal service charges | $27,912,720 |
| Operating materials and supplies | $7,143,921 |
| Repairs and maintenance | $7,292,983 |
| Other expenses | $6,194,661 |
| Contractual services | $3,230,342 |
| Transfers out | $2,332,017 |
| Capital outlay | $128,908 |
| Expense credits | −$9,396,170 |
| Total (components sum to $152,576,046; printed total $152,576,045) | $152,576,046 |
All-funds FY 2025-26 revenue components: taxes $152,393,331; licenses, permits, and fines $4,282,299; transfers in $34,457,361; charges for services $23,564,495; other revenues $8,492,511; utility charges $45,113,533; internal service charges $48,879,054; investment income $4,214,192; intergovernmental $60,668,597. All-funds expense components: personnel $144,648,320; contractual services $35,310,216; other expenses $27,239,629; operating materials and supplies $25,249,057; repairs and maintenance $23,754,945; transfer out $36,857,361; capital projects $56,806,981; capital outlay $11,204,464; expense credits −$10,396,575; intragovernmental $7,506,998; debt service $11,262,367; internal service charges $44,068,558.
Source: City of Fairfield Budget and Financial Plan, FY 2025-26 and FY 2026-27, all-funds and General Fund summaries.
Structural deficit — the budget's own framing
The City Manager's message (June 17, 2025) is explicit that Fairfield has a structural deficit of approximately $11 million per year, and that the FY 2026-27 General Fund gap of $11,063,271 is that deficit arriving on schedule rather than a surprise. The budget bridges it with onetime measures while maintaining the General Fund reserve at 23%, above the 20% policy goal — but the message also notes 24.5 positions frozen out of 598 funded FTE, which is the visible cost of holding the line. This page reports the reserve percentage as the budget states it; the General Fund ending fund-balance dollar figure is omitted because it could not be cleanly extracted from the garbled summary table (see the basis notice).
Source: City of Fairfield Budget and Financial Plan, FY 2025-26 and FY 2026-27, City Manager's message.
Sources & notes
- Only source used: City of Fairfield Budget and Financial Plan, FY 2025-26 and FY 2026-27 (biennial budget; resolutions passed and adopted June 17, 2025). Read the budget.
- Sum checks: GF tax detail sums to $123,499,757; $123,499,757 + $28,850,020 = $152,349,777; GF FY 2025-26 net $152,349,777 − $152,576,045 = −$226,268; GF FY 2026-27 net $145,939,454 − $157,002,725 = −$11,063,271; all-funds net $382,065,374 − $413,512,319 = −$31,446,945.
- Disclosed, not smoothed: (1) all-funds revenue components sum $1 below the printed total; expense components sum $2 above; (2) GF category expenses sum $1 above the printed total (table total shown as the component sum, with the printed total noted); (3) General Fund ending fund balance omitted (not cleanly extractable); (4) the City Manager's "~$415M" total expenditure framing differs from the $413,512,319 summary total and is presented as the message's rounded framing, not as a reconciled total.
- Fiscal-year labels: biennial budget FY 2025-26 (July 1, 2025–June 30, 2026) and FY 2026-27 (July 1, 2026–June 30, 2027); adopted June 17, 2025.
- Jurisdiction palette: no verified City of Fairfield palette was on file, so this page uses the neutral Hometown Numbers dark-glass theme rather than a city color.