In response to this winter’s devastating wildfires, Carlsbad added $850,000 for fire prevention and mitigation efforts across several city departments in its mid-year budget update approved Tuesday.
“Southern California was hit by a wave of wildfires and red flag warnings for weeks,” said Carlsbad City Manager Geoff Patnoe.
“The City Council was inundated with emails and phone calls from residents asking is there anything that we as a city could do to help prepare,” Patnoe said. “It’s not a matter of if, but a matter of when North County will be under threat again from wildfires.”
The one-time allocation is for clearing brush and to develop wildfire mitigation plans across various city departments, he said. Additional spending could be needed as the plans are developed.
Also approved in the budget update was $40,000 to reopen the city’s Dove and Cole libraries from 1 to 5 p.m. on Sundays. The Sunday hours were dropped as a cost-saving measure five years ago. Patnoe said it may take a few weeks to arrange the staffing, but the Sunday hours should be back by summer.
Carlsbad has a gross regional product of $16.8 billion and its overall economy is second in size only to the city of San Diego, finance officials said. The additional spending comes with a slow uptick in city revenue.
Property tax revenue, the city’s largest single source of revenue, from July through December of 2024 increased by $1.7 million or about 5% over the same six months a year earlier to a total of $34.4 million, said City Finance Director Zach Korach.
The current median home price in Carlsbad is $1.48 million, an increase of 2% over last year.
Sales tax revenue for the past six months stayed nearly level, going from $30.4 million to $30.5 million compare to the same six months a year earlier, Korach said. Revenue from the hotel room tax known as transient occupancy tax or TOT increased from $19.1 million to $19.7 million, or 3%.
Carlsbad has 42 hotels with an average daily room rate of $201.33, according to a city report.
The city anticipates $239 million in revenue and $238.5 million in expenses in its general fund for the full 2024-25 fiscal year. It has $131 million in reserves, which exceeds the city’s policy of keeping an amount equal to 40% of its general fund in reserve.
