Good Budget News, Bad Budget News

While the State of California is $1.5 billion behind in revenues over the first four months of its fiscal year, Santa Barbara County’s General Fund has a net positive variance of $2.87 million, according to staff. However, despite the good news, the county’s projected budget gap for the next year sits at $15.2 million. While property transfer tax and local retail sales taxes are both trending behind county projections, the transient occupancy tax generated from hotels is up 17 percent for the first quarter.