A budget that can cover what the town needs after 2027
Three sources of money run out while the next council is in office. Nobody is saying so out loud.
$1,670,516
The projected General Fund ending balance, down from $5,288,526 two years ago.
$5.29mwhat the Town had left over at the end of June 2024
$1.67mwhat it expects to have left over this year
Each coin is one hundred thousand dollars.
- What a reserve is for
- A storm takes out a culvert, a roof fails, a settlement lands. The reserve is what a town spends when something it did not plan for happens.
- Why the fall matters
- Two more years like the last two and there is nothing left to spend.
Where things actually stand
The adopted FY2026-27 budget is $22,109,368 across all funds. Inside that, the General Fund takes in $10,978,660, spends $15,917,800, and closes the difference with $4,528,590 in transfers in. It passed 3 to 2.
61.2%goes to police and fire
- Police $5,475,235
- Fire $4,281,478
- Everything else $6,161,087
Everything else the Town does. $6,161,087. Roads, parks, planning, the Pavilion, staff, insurance and every project anyone asks for, out of what is left.
- Why this matters
- When people ask why the Town cannot afford something, the honest answer is usually that most of the money was spoken for before the question came up. That is normal for a small California town. It is not a scandal, and it is not an argument against either service.
The rest of the budget works around that.
- General Fund
- The Town's main account. It pays for police, fire, the roads crew, the planning counter and the people who run the place.
- Revenues
- What the Town collects itself: property and sales tax, the local taxes voters have passed, business licenses, building permits and fees.
- Transfers in
- Money moved across from the Town's other accounts, which are separate pots set aside for particular jobs. It is legal and common, and it only works while those other pots have something in them.
- Appropriations
- Permission to spend. The council votes a number for each department at the start of the year, and that is the ceiling.
One number is going to get misused between now and November, so take it from me first.
The fire line rose 17.1 percent. The Ross Valley Fire JPA contribution rose 4.69 percent. Almost the entire difference is debt service on the Station 21 remodel, including the first of five annual $367,000 payments on that $1.6 million county loan. Anyone who quotes you the 17 percent without that sentence attached is either not reading the budget or counting on the fact that you haven't.
There's good news in here, and it goes unmentioned because it's boring.
The FY2024-25 audit came back unmodified, with no material weaknesses (Maze & Associates). Net pension liability is $2.03 million. Retiree health benefits are over funded, because Fairfax has a dedicated parcel tax that pre funds them. Very few small California cities can say either of those things, and Fairfax can say both.
Fairfax has a cash flow and deferred maintenance problem. It doesn't have a pension problem, and a campaign built on that premise is campaigning against a town that doesn't exist.
Three things that run out while the next council is in office
None of them is on a council agenda yet. All three land during the four years you're voting on.
- The SEIU contract covering Public Works expiresThe Town has not published the exact date
- The formula business moratorium expires with no replacement drafted
- The Flood Zone 9 fee terminates
On top of those, Town buildings need about $12.19 million of work. The Pavilion is in the worst shape of any of them. All of this lands on the council you elect in November, not on the one that just left.
On your ballot: Measure R
Measure R is the Ross Valley Paramedic Authority parcel tax, and it needs a two thirds majority to pass. The Fairfax Town Council placed it on the ballot 5 to 0 (Resolution 2026-24, July 1, 2026).
For Fairfax the rate runs $107.50 in FY2027-28, $111.00 in FY2028-29, $114.50 in FY2029-30, and $118.00 in FY2030-31, charged per residential unit or per 1,000 square feet of nonresidential space. It raises roughly $432,000 a year from Fairfax.
RVPA serves Corte Madera, Larkspur, Fairfax, Ross, San Anselmo, Kentfield, Greenbrae and Sleepy Hollow.
This one is your decision and not the council's. My job here's to make sure you've the figures and both arguments before you mark it, so read both in your sample ballot.
What I would do
- Put all three of those dates on the council calendar now, with somebody's name against each one and a date for the first real conversation. None of them should be a surprise in the last month.
- Get a list of what needs fixing in Town buildings, worst first, with what it costs to fix now and what it costs to keep waiting. Then putting something off is a decision somebody made, rather than something that just happened.
- Publish a one page version of the budget next to the PDF. What came in, what went out, what's left, in words.
- Get the two sets of published figures to agree, in public, and then keep them agreeing.
What I don't know yet
The Town's budget web page reports $12.4 million all funds and $8.1 million General Fund. The adopted budget PDF reports $22.1 million and $15.92 million. Those aren't rounding differences, and from outside the building I can't tell which pair is the operative one.
Separately: $1.67 million against $15.9 million of appropriations is 10.5 percent, not the 25.1 percent reserve the budget states. Either the reserve is measured against a different denominator, or something is wrong.
Am I missing anything?
If you know something about the budget that I do not, or you would go a different way on it, I would like to hear it.
Your name and neighborhood help if you are happy to give them. Nothing you send will ever be shared without your permission, and I would never sell your information.
Last updated . Corrections