Oakland's finances are getting worse

Oakland's year-end budget deficit projection in $129.5 million; the complaint against Alameda County's registrar of voters; Newsom slams Oakland's Gaza ceasefire resolution. Plus, more!

CITY NEWS

OAKLAND

—RED DAWN—Last June, Oakland elected officials lauded their own efforts to close a record-breaking $360 million budget shortfall. But as the months have passed, Oakland’s dire financial situation is only getting worse.

—“The story here is expenditures are exceeding revenues,” Oakland Finance Director Erin Roseman said in clinical terms during a Finance Committee meeting this week.

—Oakland’s finance department reported a $54 million deficit for the fourth quarter of this year (April through June), or the three months that preceded the council finalizing its two-year budget.

—The three months following adoption of the Fiscal Year 2023-24 budget (July through September) continued the trend, yielding projections for a $129.5 million year-end budget shortfall.

—Poor financial headwinds were already identified by Oakland’s finance department, including a delay in collecting revenue due to the city’s ransomware attack earlier this year and rising interest rates, among pressing issues.

—“What we did not necessarily account for was the magnitude in the reduction of revenues,” Roseman said. “We knew there would be some reduction of revenues, but not to this degree.”

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