James for Ventura · Smarter Spending

Ventura Budget Simulator

Start from the City's FY 2026 adopted budget. Cut, freeze, or raise any line and watch the fund balance move. An independent tool from James for Ventura, built from the City's published budget. Not an official City of Ventura product.

FY 2026 adopted spending
Your spending
Your revenue
Surplus / deficit
Start from:
Revenue assumptions
Adjust a revenue source up or down, for example a weaker sales-tax year.

How to read this

  1. Baseline. Every line starts at the FY 2026 adopted figure (July 2025 – June 2026), the last full year's budget. The grey "FY 27 proposed" figure under each line is the City Manager's April 2026 proposal, shown for comparison.1
  2. Cuts are mostly people. Salaries and benefits make up about 61% of General Fund spending.2 The "staff costs" share under each department is for all funds in that department. A large cut to Police (84%) or Fire (86%) means positions, not supplies.
  3. Non-Departmental ($19.1M in FY 26) includes about $10M of one-time transfers, among them $5M OPD, $1.5M Bayshore, $2.7M public liability and $0.9M for fire facilities. The City removed them in FY 27, which is why that line falls to $8.4M.1
  4. One-time money. The FY 26 General Fund balanced using $7.8M of prior-year resources, and Measure O used $9.4M. Tick "Exclude one-time prior-year money" to see the gap without them.2
  5. Roads. Most road money sits outside these two funds, in the gas tax (HUTA, $6.2M) and SB 1 ($2.6M) funds in FY 26. The General Fund and Measure O lines tagged "Roads" are maintenance only. Use "Add" in the changes panel to model a new item such as Montalvo Area Street Resurfacing.1
  6. Adopted FY 27 differs slightly. The Council adopted a FY 27 General Fund of $153,803,452 on June 9, 2026, which is $819,868 above the proposal shown here.3

Sources

  1. City of Ventura Proposed Budget FY 2027 (web edition, May 22, 2026), Exhibit 2.01 and department Exhibits 3.01C–3.12C, "Expenditures by Cost Center," FY 2026 Adopted and FY 2027 Proposed columns.
  2. Same budget book, Exhibit 2.04.01 (General Fund) and 2.04.02 (Measure O), revenues and expenditures by category; department staff-cost shares from Exhibits 3.01B–3.12B.
  3. City of Ventura, City Council staff report for the June 9, 2026 FY 2027 budget hearing, Attachment C.
Paid for by James Loughrie for City Council 2026