Anaheim will add more police officers and expand library hours and recreational opportunities for residents thanks to the revenue growth fulled by a rebounding Anaheim Resort. The City Council approved the new city budget at its June 27 meeting, after weeks of budget workshops and presentations to both the city council and community meetings.
The $2.1 billion budget represents a 6 percent increase from last year as revenue from hotel, sales and property taxes are poised to surpass pre-pandemic levels and reach record levels. Tax revenue growth in Anaheim has historically exceeded original forecasts.
Public safety being the fundamental purpose of local government, the new budget contains funding to hire an additional 12 police officers, six more firefighters, and fun six police school resource officers. The latter were added in response to serious gang issues at Anaheim High School and Sycamore Junior High School (incidents include an assault on Sycamore’s principal in April). The Anaheim Union High School District will split the cost of these camps police officers 50-50 with the city.
The budget includes an expansion of library hours and park space for public recreation.
The Central Library and the Haskett Branch Library, currently open six days a week, will now be open every day with the addition of Sunday hours.
Canyon Branch Library and Sunkist Branch Library be open six days a week with the addition of Saturday hours.
East Branch Library, near Canyon Branch will stay at five days a week but change to a Monday-through-Thursday-plus Sundays schedule.
Since both the Canyon and East branch libraries a located in Anaheim Hills, east Anaheim residents will have 7-day-a-week access to an open city library.
The budget also contains funding for residents to use school fields at Sycamore Junior High School, South Junior High School and the Trident Education Center for youth sports – while the field at Sycamore will also be available to the public for general park use.
The city budget covers everything in our city and touches the daily lives of everyone in Anaheim with parks, community centers and libraries, police and fire, neighborhood and road improvements, water and power, affordable housing, addressing homelessness and more.
Other budget highlights include:
- $4.5 million for replacing sidewalks and improved landscaping
- $4.6 million for park improvements and business storefront improvements
- $3.2 million for a citywide strategic plan, employee pay and classification review, a special election for a proposed initiative (click here for more) and an upgrade of the city’s permitting system
- $3.1 million for expanded and continued services to address homelessness
- $500,000 for senior programs
- $300,000 for expanded tree trimming
At the City Council’s direction, the budget also includes additional spending on key priorities with $870,000 for three more firefighters (for a total of nine positions in the budget) and $100,000 for improvements at Paul Revere Park in central Anaheim.
Budget Clouds On The Horizon
While the city’s budget situation has improved dramatically in the wake of the Resort’s re-opening, there is a dark cloud on the horizon in the form of Measure A, a ballot initiative sponsored by militant hotel worker union UNITE-HERE Local 11, which represents works at five of the more than 160 hotels in Anaheim.
Measure A imposes on all hotels and “event centers” a $25 minimum wage and a maze of complicated work rules that are very difficult to comply with. Any violation will subject affected businesses to potential lawsuits and fines. Measure A’s definition of event center include city-owned facilities such as the Anaheim Convention Center, the Honda Center, Angel Stadium and various community centers. If passed, it will have major detrimental impacts on Anaheim’s city budget by inflating labor costs and reducing tax revenues, according to multiple experts. The city’s finance director estimates Measure A would result in a $90 million hit to the city budget over the first ten years.
