Every number behind the budget story

General Fund spending by department, FY2018–FY2027. FY2027 actual was $85.4M up from $44.3M in FY2018 — figures are nominal dollars, not adjusted for inflation or population growth.

Source: Annual Comprehensive Financial Reports (audited actuals) and the adopted/proposed budget for years without an audit yet.

FY2018–FY2025 figures are audited actuals from the city's Annual Comprehensive Financial Reports (ACFR FY2024–25, p. 114 for FY2025; ACFR FY2023–24, p. 114 for FY2018–2024). FY2026 from the FY2025–26 Adopted Budget; FY2027 from the FY2026–27 Proposed Budget.

FY2025 actual spending came in $4.0M (5.6%) above the adopted budget, and $2.6M above the final amended budget (the version council approved mid-year, after adjustments). Department-level variance below, largest first.

Source: FY2025 Annual Comprehensive Financial Report, budgetary comparison schedule.

Total city compensation (wages + benefits) reached $58.8M in calendar year 2024 across 480 employees, up from $37.2M in 2018. Overtime was 10.9% of wages city-wide — but Fire alone ran 35.8% overtime in 2024, above every other department.

Source: State Controller’s Office Government Compensation in California database. Calendar years don't align exactly with the city's July–June fiscal year, so these figures shouldn't be compared directly to the ACFR spending figures above.

Source: California Government Compensation in California (GCC) database, published annually by the State Controller's Office. Data reflects actual compensation paid. Individual employee names are not stored.

Note: GCC data is reported by calendar year (January–December), which does not align with Petaluma's fiscal year (July–June). Calendar year 2024 overlaps with fiscal years FY2024 and FY2025. Compensation figures on this tab should not be directly compared to ACFR fiscal year expenditure figures without accounting for this offset.

The General Fund closed FY2025 with $18.8M in total fund balance. Reserves stood at 2.7 months of spending — a “green” level, though the trend has been declining. Unassigned balance — money with no earmark — is shown separately below; most of what's held is often assigned to specific future uses, not freely available.

Source: Annual Comprehensive Financial Reports, governmental funds balance sheet.

Assigned balances are earmarked for specific future uses; unassigned represents truly discretionary reserves. GFOA recommends a minimum of two months of annual operating expenditures (~16.7% of total). Source: ACFR FY2024–25, pp. 165–166 (FY2025); ACFR FY2023–24, pp. 165–166 (FY2015–2024).

The tread water threshold is the minimum annual contribution that keeps the unfunded pension liability from growing — normal cost plus interest on the existing shortfall. Paying below it means the liability grows even while payments are being made. In 9 of the last 10 years, contributions to the Miscellaneous plan fell short of tread water; the Safety plan fell short in 7 of 10 years. Combined net pension liability reached $131.2M as of FY2024.

Source: Annual Comprehensive Financial Reports, net pension liability by plan.

Source: net pension liability from ACFR FY2024–25, pp. 107–110 (FY2025) and ACFR FY2023–24, pp. 107–110 (FY2014–2024); contribution schedules from pp. 123–126 of the same report. FY2024 ADC matches the FY2022 figure ($10,234,649) — as reported in ACFR FY2023–24, p. 123; may reflect actuarial smoothing.

Structural balance measures whether recurring revenues cover recurring expenditures — set aside one-time items like asset sales, capital spending, or inter-fund transfers. A surplus means ongoing operations are self-sustaining; a deficit means the city is using one-time money to fund ongoing services. FY2025 closed with a structural surplus of $2.4M (3.0% of recurring revenue). 1 of the last 8 years closed with a structural deficit.

Recurring revenue minus recurring expenditure, FY2018–FY2025

A structural surplus can coexist with a falling fund balance — that happens when the balance decline comes from inter-fund transfers (a financing decision) rather than weaker operations. Source: Annual Comprehensive Financial Reports.

All figures are audited actuals from the city's ACFRs, FY2018–FY2025. Source: ACFR FY2024–25, p. 114 (FY2025); ACFR FY2023–24, p. 114 (FY2018–2024).

Net position is the government-wide equivalent of net worth — total assets minus total liabilities, including long-term obligations like pensions, OPEB, and bonded debt that don't appear in the General Fund figures above. Total net position was $257.4M at the end of FY2025, up $1.1M for the year. Of that total, unrestricted position was a deficit of $44.3M — a common condition for cities carrying significant pension liabilities when negative.

Government-wide figures use full accrual accounting (GASB 34) and differ from the General Fund fund-balance figures above, which use modified accrual accounting and exclude long-term liabilities. Source: Annual Comprehensive Financial Reports, statement of net position.

Government-wide net position differs from General Fund fund balance. The General Fund statements use modified accrual accounting and exclude long-term liabilities including pension obligations. Government-wide statements use full accrual accounting (GASB 34) and include all assets and liabilities. Net pension liability shown here reflects Petaluma's proportionate share of CalPERS pool obligations and may differ from plan-level figures in the Pension Obligations tab. Source: ACFR FY2024–25, p. 44 (FY2025); ACFR FY2023–24, p. 44 (FY2018–2024).

Coefficient of variation (CoV) measures year-to-year swings as a share of the average — higher means less predictable, and a volatile source needs bigger reserves to absorb a down year. The bigger risk sits in Taxes: it grew from $29.1M to $53.2M over this window — a large, now-load-bearing revenue source worth watching.

Volatility ranking

1. OtherCoV 72%
2. Use of money and propertyCoV 68%
3. Fines, forfeitures, and penaltiesCoV 34%
4. TaxesCoV 25%
5. Charges for current servicesCoV 18%
6. IntergovernmentalCoV 14%
7. Licenses, permits and feesCoV 13%

CoV computed across all years on file. Transfers excluded — they’re financing activity, not operating revenue. Source: Annual Comprehensive Financial Reports, governmental funds revenue detail.

CoV calculated on 8 years of audited actuals (FY2018–FY2025). Transfers are excluded from volatility analysis as they are financing activities, not operating revenues. A longer time series will improve the statistical reliability of these measures. Source: ACFR FY2024–25, p. 114 and ACFR FY2023–24, p. 114. Coefficient of variation (CoV) measures year-to-year variability as a percentage of the mean — higher means less predictable. A highly volatile revenue source requires larger reserves to absorb down years. Note that the most volatile categories (Use of money & property, Other) are also the smallest in absolute terms. The most significant volatility risk is in Taxes, which jumped from $29M in FY2018 to $52M in FY2022 when Measure U took effect — creating a high baseline that depends on voter renewal.

The General Fund — the subject of most of this page — is one of 9 funds shown here. Across them, the city took in $284.0M and spent $321.6M in FY2027. Capital Projects, the largest fund by spending, spent $133.3M that year.

Spending by fund, FY2027

1. Capital Projects$133.3M
2. General Fund$85.4M
3. Utilities$75.3M
4. Special Revenue$45.5M
5. Enterprise$16.4M
6. Internal Service$14.9M
7. Measure U$6.6M
8. Successor Agency$4.1M
9. Measure H$0.0M

Transfers between funds are counted once as "in" and once as "out" and are excluded from these per-fund totals to avoid double-counting. Source: Annual Comprehensive Financial Reports and adopted/proposed budgets, all governmental and enterprise funds.

The city carries $508.6M in net book value of capital assets — infrastructure, buildings, land, and equipment, net of depreciation — as of FY2025. Separately, $301.6M in capital improvement projects is planned or underway across 4 categories, led by Water.

Source: Annual Comprehensive Financial Report capital asset schedules; adopted Capital Improvement Program.

Capital asset rollforward (A & B): ACFR FY2024–25, Note 5, pp. 77–81 (FY2025); ACFR FY2023–24, Note 5, pp. 77–80 (FY2024). CIP pipeline (C): FY2025–26 Adopted Operating and Capital Improvement Budget. O&M appropriations (D): city adopted budgets FY2022–FY2025 and FY2026–27 Proposed Budget.

Seven fiscal-health indicators based on the Strong Towns Finance Decoder methodology, computed from government-wide (governmental activities) data in the ACFRs. The composite read for FY2025 is green, with a declining multi-year trend on net financial position — it peaked at $38.9M in FY2022.

Net financial position, FY2018–FY2025

Based on the Strong Towns Finance Decoder. Source data is governmental activities only. Some years pending ACFR backfill.