Where your City tax dollars go, and how to weigh in.
Menlo Park is deciding its budget for FY 2026-27 (July 1, 2026 – June 30, 2027). The plan spends about $89,800,000 from the General Fund — roughly $1,800,000 more than the City expects to collect. That gap started the season at about $7.8 million; staff have already closed roughly $6 million of it through cost-control measures. The City Council votes on June 9, 2026, and public comment is open to anyone.
›Show source for these figures
General Fund spending, deficit, and staffing are the City's published figures: OpenGov transparency portal + May 28, 2026 public budget workshop deck. The cost per resident is computed here as the exact General Fund expense total ($89,837,780, from gl_transactions) divided by the latest population estimate of 33,785 (U.S. Census Bureau estimate, 2026).
June 9, 2026: Budget public hearing
Formal public hearing on the proposed budget. Most public comment occurs here.
Public comment is open to anyone. See the full budget calendar.
The Council's priorities for FY 2026-27 (July 1, 2026 – June 30, 2027)
These are the areas the Council asked staff to put first when building this budget:
- Public safetyNew
- Climate action
- Downtown vibrancy
- Housing
- Safe routes
The FY 2026-27 (July 1, 2026 – June 30, 2027) budget, by fund type
The General Fund pays for day-to-day services like police, libraries, and parks. Other funds are restricted to specific purposes, such as water service or capital projects.
Money coming in (revenue)
Money going out (expense)
›Show source
Totals are summed from gl_transactions for fiscal year 2027, grouped by fund type (view v_fund_summary). These are citywide figures across all funds, not just the General Fund.
Capital projects
The capital plan totals about $215.6M across active priority projects, of which $79.8M is committed today. Of the remaining $109.5M, about 39% depends on grants the City is pursuing, 41% has a water-rate path, 10%comes from restricted local revenue (Measure W, gas tax), and only about 2% depends on General Fund growth.
The genuinely structurally-concerning slice is closer to $9.1M than to $109.5M.
Explore every project and how it's paid for ›Developer projects
6 major private developments tracked, including one paused (Willow Village). See whose money pays, and what flows back to the City.
See where the money flows ››Show source
Capital portfolio totals are summed from the City's project funding records (view v_project_funding_gap): identified lifetime cost and funding secured. The pathway breakdown and the structurally-concerning figure (projects that depend on General Fund growth, plus the General-Fund residual of the in-pursuit building electrification project) come from v_capital_backlog_by_pathway, which classifies each project by funding mechanism. Developer counts are from the developer_projects table.
Read the budget for yourself
This site is a guide. For the primary source, go to the City's own interactive budget.
Have a question? Ask it.
Ask anything about the City budget in plain English and get an answer built from the City's own data, with the sources shown — then a nudge toward the next public meeting where it counts.