Santa Monica Budget Explorer Fiscal Year 2025-26
Independent community project — not an official City of Santa Monica website. · About the numbers
Independent look at · Adopted Budget FY 2025-26

Santa Monica plans to spend $796.6 million this year. Here's where it goes.

A plain-language look at how your city raises and spends money — from police and fire to buses, water, and libraries — and what your household's share looks like.

31 funds 15 departments 2,147 staff (citywide) $8,703 per resident (all funds)

$796.6M is the budget-book citywide total (net of transfers). Council later applied hiring-freeze savings that brought the reported adopted figure to about $793.3M — charts here follow the printed schedules.

The flow of money

Money in

Where the money comes from

The city pays for services with many kinds of money: taxes, fees for services like water and buses, grants, and more. Hotel tax from visitors is one piece — about $68.6M, roughly 14% of General Fund revenue — alongside property tax, sales tax, and charges residents and businesses pay.

Revenue by source

See this chart as a table

Major General Fund taxes

Property and sales tax are the two largest. Hotel tax and the others below are the main pieces of "Other Local Taxes."

See this chart as a table

The City keeps only about 2% of the 10.25% sales-tax rate, and receives well under 20% of a homeowner's property-tax bill — the rest funds the county, schools, and special districts.

Money out

Where the money goes

Spending, biggest to smallest

Hover any bar for the exact amount and share. Use the toggle above to switch between the whole city and just the General Fund. Prefer a table? Open it below the chart.

See this chart as a table

Is the budget balanced?

See this chart as a table
Your share

What does your household fund?

Adjust the numbers below to see your household's share of city services. Remember: this is your share of spending, not a bill you personally pay.

$

Rough estimate only. Enter market value if you like — under Prop 13, long-time owners often have a much lower assessed value, so the City's actual take can be smaller.

Water, sewer, and trash are mostly paid by users through fees. Buses also rely heavily on grants and dedicated transit money — not just fares. Off by default so the default view matches General Fund services.

$10,581
Your household's yearly share of General Fund services
How to read this: This tool shows the share of services your household represents (total spending ÷ everyone who lives here × your household size) — not what you personally hand over in taxes. Residents, visitors, and businesses all fund the city in different ways. It's an estimate for understanding, not a tax bill.
Departments & services

Look up any city service

Search or browse to see what a department does, what it costs, and how many people it takes to run.

About the numbers

How this works & where it comes from

Every figure here comes from the City's adopted FY 2025-26 budget. Here's the plain-English glossary, the methodology, and the source.

Budget words, in plain English

Methodology & sources

What the numbers mean and how "your share" is calculated.

What year & basis?
Figures are the adopted budget (the Council-approved plan) for fiscal year 2025-26, July 1 2025 – June 30 2026 — not final actual spending. Headline "whole city" totals are net of about $115M in interfund transfers ($796.6M spending). The fund list, balance trend, and flow diagram use gross amounts (~$912M spending / ~$930M revenue flows), so they show more. Both are real; they answer different questions.
How is "your share" calculated?
We divide total spending by the city's population (91,535) to get a per-resident average, then multiply by your household size. It's an average share of services, not taxes you pay. Default view uses General Fund spending (~$5,291 per resident); turning on enterprise services uses the all-funds net total (~$8,703 per resident). The property-tax estimate takes the value you enter × the basic 1% rate × an illustrative ~14% city share; under Prop 13 assessed value can be much lower than market value. Excludes voter-approved parcel taxes and bonds.
Why is Water (or the bus) separate?
Services that largely pay for themselves through user fees — water, sewer, trash — are kept in separate enterprise funds, apart from the General Fund that covers police, fire, parks, and libraries. Big Blue Bus also uses fares, but relies heavily on grants and dedicated transit funding.
Source documents
City of Santa Monica, FY 2025-27 Adopted Biennial Budget: Revenue Summary by Category & Fund (p.121), Expenditure Summary by Fund (p.155), Five-Year Expenditure Summary (p.157), Personnel by Fund (pp.218-219), Population (p.88). santamonica.gov → Budgets & Annual Financial Reports. Hotel / utility / business / parking tax breakouts are rounded estimates from the budget overview.
Corrections & contact
Spotted an error or have a suggestion? This is an independent resident project. Open an issue or send a note via the project repository if you have one, or ask the person who shared this link. Always verify against the City's published budget before relying on a figure for advocacy or reporting.