Speak Out at June 17, 2025 City Council Meeting to Increase Funding for Roads and Bike Paths
June 11, 2025
By Elaine Roberts Musser & Dan Carson
On June 17, 2025 the City Council will “finalize” the 2025-2027 city budget, although it is not written in stone and subject to change. The grim reality is the lion’s share of Measure Q funding (recently approved sales tax increase) has already been spent on employee compensation, and there is absolutely no Measure Q funding left.
Thus there is zero money to front load more funding for roads and bike paths as recommended by both City Council and City Staff. $14 million is needed, but only $8.6 million has been set aside, the same inadequate pavement management funding as before. So the pavement will further deteriorate from its current abysmal state, and be exponentially more expensive to fix, adding tens of millions of dollars to the already huge backlog of pavement projects. And it will present particularly unsafe conditions for bicyclists, especially children going to school.
It should be noted the Yes on Q ballot statement, signed by all five sitting City Council members at the time, declared Measure Q was: “To support essential city services, such as…pothole repair… and bike path maintenance”. Instead, the City Council devoted Measure Q funds to increased employee compensation, while the draft budget plan released May 20 would spend nothing more on roads and bike paths.
This is a bait and switch, an abject betrayal of the voters who approved Measure Q.
The labor agreements were approved by the City Council in May 2025 – just before the city’s long term financial forecast came out in June. That dismal forecast shows the city will be short by $4.9 million of the funding needed by next year to operate with an adequate reserve, despite the expenditure of all Measure Q funds. Worse, the city will be completely financially underwater within a few years, facing a zero reserve and General Fund expenditures that exceed revenues by $5 million a year.
If you care about our roads and bike paths, it is imperative that you speak out at the June 17, 2025 City Council meeting. Emphatically tell Councilmembers to cut costs in other areas of the budget and redirect that funding towards roads and bike paths. Then, insist that the Council make further spending reductions to address the serious fiscal mess they have created with their recent overspending on employee compensation. It is never too late to get the City Council on a more fiscally sustainable path.
For more detailed information on the city budget, go to this link: https://davisvanguard.org/2025/06/davis-city-fiscal-crisis-solutions/
Please provide public comment on the city budget item at the City Council meeting, either come in person (most persuasive), prerecord a comment over the phone (between noon and 4pm at 530-757-5693), or email a letter to City Council ([email protected]
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