Anaheim’s 2019-20 budget to be balanced at $2 billion; biggest chunk of revenue comes from hotel taxes

Anaheim City Council members will vote on a $2 billion budget for 2019-20 on Tuesday, June 18.

It’s a balanced budget proposal that would spend $355 million from the general fund, which covers basic services such as police and fire, parks and road repair. That’s a 9 percent increase over the current fiscal year, mainly due to annual increases in city pension contributions and stepped-up homeless services including the opening of two city-funded shelters, city spokesman Mike Lyster said.

Hotel room taxes should continue to provide the biggest share of general fund revenue, with $174 million projected in 2019-20, followed by sales and then property taxes. All three revenue sources have been on a general upward trend for nearly the past decade.

The rest of the overall budget is for specific purposes, such as housing, improvements in the resort district and the city’s water and electric utilities.

Revenue for some of those restricted funds comes from utility bill payments, the Anaheim Convention Center and other city-owned venues, state and federal grants, and fees and fines charged to city customers.

The proposed budget would hold the number of city employees level with this year’s staffing at 1,945 people, down from a 2008-09 peak of more than 2,100 workers but higher than a 2012-13 nadir of 1,847 employees.

City officials are optimistic about the local economy, despite falling home sales and a predicted slowing of job growth, according to the budget document’s introduction.

The services Anaheim delivers to residents should stay at their current level, but residents may notice a few changes in their neighborhoods and around the city. New or improved public amenities planned for 2019-20 include:

• Maxwell Park, which was cleared of a major homeless encampment in late 2018, will get the city’s third dog park, a nearly 1-acre facility residents helped design. Construction could start in early 2020.
• Anaheim’s 12th fire station will be built in the Platinum Triangle, where “significant growth” projected by the city would mean more businesses and as many as 30,000 residents in coming decades, Lyster said.
• The city will design a new outdoor science lab and interactive exhibits and expand the amphitheater at the Oak Canyon Nature Center; the improvements would be built in 2022.
• Beach Boulevard will get brighter, money-saving LED streetlights, and the ongoing city-wide effort to bury utility lines will reach Beach in 2019-20.
• Sidewalks will be built or repaired near Edison, Sunkist and Fairmont elementary schools, among other places, and major routes scheduled for widening include Lincoln Avenue between East Street and North Evergreen Street and Katella Avenue near the convention center.
• Soccer fields at La Palma Park will be refurbished, and the city will work with the county parks system to create new soccer fields at Yorba Regional Park.
• Also noted in the budget’s economic outlook, three new breweries are expected to open this summer: Dudes Brewery on Center Street, Leisuretown on South Anaheim Boulevard and Brewery X, the city’s largest to date, near Kraemer Boulevard and La Palma Avenue.

The Anaheim City Council is expected to vote on the 2019-20 budget at a meeting beginning at 5 p.m. Tuesday, June 18, at Anaheim City Hall, 200 S. Anaheim Blvd. More information, including a map tool that lets residents see projects planned in their neighborhood, is at anaheim.net.