May 25, 2017 -- With shortages in revenue set to double, Santa Monica City Manager Rick Cole on Tuesday warned “the wolf is here” as the City Council took its first dive into a record $1.57 billion biennial budget for the 2017-2019 fiscal year.

Total spending for the first of the budget’s two years is $773.7 million, or 26 percent higher than this year’s budget.

But it also includes a nearly $148 million gap in revenue. Cole proposes filling the hole with a $77 million bond this summer to pay for constructing a new City Services Building -- the single biggest piece of the leap in total spending.

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