Carlsbad City Council adopts balanced budget focused on public safety, infrastructure investments and fiscal responsibility

Fiscal year 2026-27 budget maintains focus on core services and completing key community projects

The Carlsbad City Council approved next fiscal year’s budget Tuesday, which focuses on maintaining high levels of service for the community, completing major capital improvement projects and investing in public safety and core infrastructure – all while maintaining a AAA credit rating, healthy reserves and a balanced budget.

The $249.4 million spending plan covers most day-to-day city services and includes a 2.9% increase over last year’s General Fund budget. Despite continued economic uncertainty driven by low consumer confidence, geopolitical tensions and lingering inflation, this marks the second consecutive year the city’s General Fund budget increase is lower than the regional inflation rate of 3.8%.

The adopted budget covers most day-to-day services and allows the city to continue investing in projects and services that support the City Council’s 5-Year Strategic Plan goals.

The adopted budget remains largely unchanged from the City Manager’s preliminary fiscal year 2026-27 Budget presented to the City Council on May 19 and at the Community Budget Workshop on May 21. However, there have been two minor changes included in the adopted budget.

Budget added for Wildfire Mitigation Plan – Phase 2

The City Council received the first phase of the Wildfire Mitigation Plan on June 9, 2026, and authorized $294,000 of additional appropriations to the fiscal year 2026-27 Operating Budget. This will support the development of Phase 2, the Community Wildfire Protection Plan, which includes program expansion, community education and outreach efforts.

Budget added to resume College Boulevard extension analysis

At the direction of the City Manager, an additional $2.14 million from the city’s Capital Improvement Program budget was approved to resume the cost analysis to evaluate design options and estimate construction costs for a new segment of College Boulevard from Sunny Creek Road, just east of El Camino Real, to Cannon Road near Sage Creek High School.

Work on the project had been paused since 2022. The proposed segment, approximately three-quarters of a mile in length, is included in the city’s General Plan and is intended to help improve traffic flow in the surrounding area, particularly near El Camino Real and State Route 78, one of the city’s most congested corridors.

Once the analysis is complete, the results and design options will be presented to the City Council for consideration and direction on next steps.

Additional key investments included in the adopted fiscal year 2026-27 budget include:

Quality of life & public safety

• Fully funds costs associated with the new community-oriented policing and problem-solving team (COPPS team) approved by the City Council on March 24, 2026.
• Continues the multi-year effort begun last year to enhance fire emergency response by reclassifying an additional six EMTs to Paramedic Firefighters.
• Completion of beach stairs replacement and sidewalk widening along Carlsbad Boulevard between Pine and Tamarack Avenue.
• El Camino Real road widening between Arenal Road and La Costa Avenue.
• Launching a multiyear effort to replace and upgrade traffic detection equipment at various intersections to improve traffic flow.
• Maintain 7 day-a-week library services and hours that began mid 2025 with the return of Sunday hours.
• Funding for additional all-way stop sign analysis to respond more quickly to resident requests.
• An emergency backup generator for the city’s Safety Training Center.

Sustainability

• New energy-efficient pedestrian lighting in the Village.
• Invests $5 million into the city’s Stormwater Program for flood and pollution prevention and infrastructure maintenance.
• Continuing the replacement of the city’s fleet vehicles with the purchase of four electric and 14 hybrid vehicles in the next fiscal year, bringing the total number of city vehicles that are EV or hybrid to 177.
• Addition of electrical vehicle charging stations at the State Street parking lot.
• Replacement of non-functional, non-recreational natural grass at several city properties with drought tolerant landscaping to reduce water use and maintenance costs.

Community character & connection

• Funding to support ongoing maintenance with an additional pool maintenance employee along with additional part-time Lifeguards for the newly renovated Monroe Street Pool, which is anticipated to reopen later this year.
• Construction of Veterans Memorial Park, which is expected to begin this summer. The 93.7-acre site will honor veterans for their service and celebrate the site’s natural beauty and views. It will feature family-oriented amenities and minimize environmental impacts by maintaining over half of the land as protected habitat.
• Construction of a one-mile segment of the Coastal Rail Trail and pedestrian improvements along Avenida Encinas between Palomar Airport Road and the Poinsettia Coaster Station.
• Analysis of converting parallel parking spaces to diagonal parking along several streets in the Barrio to increase on-street parking.

Organizational excellence

• Continuing to fund city operational infrastructure and technology systems to modernize and ease service delivery to residents and employees.
• Adding building inspections to the city’s online permit portal so customers can easily view building inspection history and schedule building inspections online.

The city is continuing to make strong progress on finishing capital improvement projects, with several completed on time and under budget in fiscal year 2025-26, resulting in approximately $4.8 million returned back to the city’s Capital Improvement Program fund. The adopted budget also updates the project list to remove projects that are no longer necessary or feasible, helping ensure resources remain focused on the community’s highest priorities while maximizing long-term financial efficiency.

The city operates on a fiscal year from July 1 to June 30.

At a glance

More information

Budget webpage