Tiburon begins debate on taxes, debt to fund future projects

Town Manager Greg Chanis put it bluntly: If Tiburon wants new projects, it will need to find more cash to fund them — even if it means taking on debt and increasing taxes on residents.

Chanis issued the warning and hashed out options during a presentation on revenue strategies at the Town Council’s May 20 meeting, bracing officials ahead of their pending review of the draft fiscal 2026-2027 budget on June 3. The new fiscal year begins July 1.

In his presentation, Chanis raised the possibility of taking out bonds to fund capital improvements, which would require a ballot measure and new taxes to fund the payments, a departure from the town’s longstanding pay-as-you-go model for funding projects and operations.

“The key purpose in this was to tee this up because this is now going to be a conversation that we have for the rest of this year trying to figure out how we’re going to fund our priorities,” Mayor Jon Welner said.

Those priorities, estimated to cost at least $12 million, include new amenities at Tiburon’s three neighborhood parks — with a tentative goal of completing improvements to the Bel Aire play area by December — along with a long-discussed upgrade to the Public Works Department’s Corporation Yard behind Reed Elementary School and improvements identified in the town’s recently adopted traffic study.

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