Proposed Operating Budget for Fiscal Year 2024-2025

Overview and Background

The budget is a spending plan for the City’s available financial resources and the legal authority for City departments to spend the resources for public purposes. The General Fund provides the majority of resources for most of the services cities typically deliver, including the public safety, maintenance, and general government functions required to support direct services to the community. Fremont has a long history of strong fiscal stewardship, transparency, and accountability concerning the use of taxpayer dollars. Working together, the City Council and City staff ensure the budget and financial policies reflect the community’s priorities.

Fiscal Year 2024/25 Proposed Budget

The national economy continues to expand at a moderate rate with Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth slowing slightly and unemployment remaining historically low. However, this growth is tempered by issues such as high interest rates, which discourage borrowing, affecting property tax revenues.

The 2024/25 proposed budget addresses some of our most immediate needs and our ability to improve on the current level of services depend on continued revenue growth and sustained fiscal discipline by the City’s leadership. This proposed budget continues to incorporate the City Council’s highest priorities by maintaining funding for addressing and preventing homelessness, ensuring public safety, and prioritizing environmental sustainability.

Other highlights in the proposed budget include:

• Activation of a new fire truck company, increased spending for business district activation, higher funding for the special event sponsorship program to accommodate expanded events and higher fees, and a new police lieutenant position.
• Outside the General Fund, integrated waste management fees will fund more frequent homeless encampment cleanups, and contracts with the County will pay for additional staff to serve youth and family services clients at the Fremont Family Resource Center.
• It’s noted that this year’s budget addresses a near-term revenue shortfall brought about by the overpayment of sales tax revenue by the State to the City during Fiscal Year 2022/23. Combined with reduced ongoing sales tax revenue estimates, those reallocations will require the use of one-time funds to maintain the current level of services to the community in Fiscal Year 2024/25.
• It’s important to understand that next year’s revenue shortfall is a short-term challenge. By making use of the reserves specifically established to address temporary revenue shortfalls, the proposed budget maintains current service levels.
• The General Fund forecast indicates that our ongoing revenues will again be sufficient to cover our ongoing expenditures, without the further use of reserves beginning in Fiscal Year 2025/26.

We encourage you to review the budget documents included underneath "Resources," watch the May 14 budget presentation, and consider taking the survey below.