California · 66,010 residents
Palo Alto
$641.7 million spent in FY2024.
$9,722 per resident · California cities of the same size: $1,926
Palo Alto’s spending by policy area
All the city's funds, including the utilities and other services it runs as businesses.
Click a line to see what it pays for
The 2 other items (4%)
Source: California State Controller's Office — Cities Annual Report (By the Numbers), FY2024.
Capital spending
$43.9M of capital outlay in FY2024, $666 per resident.
The capital outlay of the city's general and special funds in FY2024, by function. What its utilities invest is not reported as spending in their accounts.
Source: California State Controller's Office — Cities Annual Report (By the Numbers), FY2024.
Revenue
Revenue: $722.5M · spending: $641.7M.
Source: California State Controller's Office — Cities Annual Report (By the Numbers), FY2024. Borrowing and transfers between the city's funds are not counted as revenue.
Debt and taxation
California cities of the same size: $1,110
$226.2M owed in total at the end of FY2024, $8.6M of it due within a year
$2,534 of local taxes per resident
California cities of the same size: $910
$167.3M collected in FY2024
FY2024 accounts, all the city's funds. Per resident: amount divided by the population (U.S. Census Bureau, Census of Governments). “Of the same size”: median of the 20 California cities closest in population (61,978 to 70,282 residents).
Understanding these figures
What this page covers
All the city's own funds, actual spending, as it reports it to the State Controller each year: the general and special funds, capital outlay and debt service, and each business the city runs (water, sewer, electricity, airport, port, transit, hospital). The internal service fund, which re-spends what departments already paid it, and depreciation, an accounting charge rather than money spent, are left out. California collects no voted budgets.
How is the comparison with cities of the same size made?
The 20 cities of California closest in population (61,978 to 70,282 residents) are ranked from lowest to highest, and the one in the middle is taken (the median). Being above or below says nothing about good or bad: it depends on what each city runs itself. A city with its own power or water utility spends and collects more.
Where do these figures come from?
California State Controller's Office — Cities Annual Report (By the Numbers). The state's records ↗ Population: U.S. Census Bureau, Census of Governments (population reported with the unit), 2024 file. Qipu changes no amount.
Elected officials and staff of Palo Alto: to report a figure to correct or add context, write to Qipu.
Compare with Yuba City or with another California city:
Page published by Qipu, independent of the town · Sources and method
California State Controller's Office — Cities Annual Report (By the Numbers) · U.S. Census Bureau, Census of Governments (population reported with the unit) · FY2024. The method · See the source