A 1,602-person mountain town at the gateway to Mt. Shasta. This dashboard maps four lenses on the local economy: government health, the lived experience of locals, the three streams of economic activity, and a strategic SWOT.
Net change = revenue minus expenses. The adopted FY 25-27 budget was finalized August 2025, before Measure D passed in November 2025. The blue line shows the budget's worst-case projection, which assumed the existing 0.5% T&U tax would expire in March 2026 with no replacement. The amber line shows the realistic trajectory now that Measure D is approved, generating ~$270k/yr in additional GF revenue. The amber line stays comfortably above the 20% reserve target.
Source: City of Dunsmuir adopted budget FY25-27, department totals as published. One-time items: Facilities includes $150k PW Shop construction; City Council includes $38k Measure D special election; Resilience Coordinator $175k is grant-funded (offset by matching revenue). The Sheriff contract alone is 23% of total GF expenses and grows faster than property tax revenue — a key driver of the structural deficit Measure D was designed to address.
Measure A passed Nov 2024 (TOT raised to 12%). Measure D passed Nov 2025 (raises sales tax to 8.25%, replacing the expiring 0.5% T&U with a new 1% T&U, generating ~$270k/yr). Two tax measures approved in 13 months — voters are saying they will fund their own revitalization.
The 18-24 cohort is the missing generation — 30% below expected. The 65+ cohort is well-represented and anchors property tax revenue, civic institutions, and the volunteer base. Median age 47.9 vs ~38 statewide.
93 → 65 students. Investigate this.
School quality is the binding constraint on family in-migration. A young family considering Dunsmuir reads the school data first — outcomes, class sizes, peer performance — and the answers determine whether the rest of the town's affordability and natural beauty matter to them. The data below profiles Dunsmuir Elementary (K-8) and Dunsmuir High (9-12) against California state averages and against neighboring schools in Siskiyou Union HSD.
National surveys (EdChoice, GreatSchools, Fordham) consistently identify these factors as the top considerations parents weigh when evaluating schools. Dunsmuir's two single-school districts are profiled below against California state averages. Honest read: Dunsmuir's schools struggle on traditional academic metrics relative to state averages, with small enrollments creating high statistical variance. Below-average outcomes here are part of why family in-migration is constrained.
Comparing schools this small carries small-N caveats — single-year scores can vary substantially. The directional pattern across all three metrics is meaningful: Dunsmuir High trails its in-county peers in every academic outcome measured, and the gap grows in math and science.
Strategic frame: School quality is a binding constraint on family in-migration. Current trajectory is a net negative for Initiative 2 (Balanced Age Demographic). This is why the school-quality investment lever in that initiative carries weight (0.18). Sources: California School Dashboard, SchoolDigger, US News Education, CA Dept of Ed DataQuest, Ed-Data partnership. Caveats: Small-school statistics carry high year-over-year variance; HS dropout and absenteeism shown as ranges to reflect this. Per-pupil spending high at HS partly reflects small denominator (61 students), not necessarily better resourcing.
Dunsmuir is structurally a bedroom community. Most working residents commute out of town for jobs — primarily to Mt. Shasta City — while only a minority work where they live. This shapes both the local economy (limited in-town payroll capture) and the demographic strategy (recruiting employers is one of Initiative 3's central levers). The data below answers three questions: where do Dunsmuir residents work, what jobs are actually available in town, and how do wages compare to the region.
Sectors where the 607 employed Dunsmuir residents work — most jobs are not in town:
Approximately 150-180 in-town jobs distributed across:
Median household income across geographic levels:
Dunsmuir's median earnings are within $1k of Siskiyou County's, but both lag California's $96.5k median by more than 38%. A key wage benchmark: the highest-paying industries in the county are Utilities ($86k), Finance ($80k), Public Administration ($74k), and Construction ($68k). Public-sector union jobs (e.g., City of Dunsmuir Public Works at $31.58–$37.37/hr with CalPERS) are among the highest-paying local roles. Most retail and hospitality jobs in town pay $15-22/hr, near or at minimum wage.
Strategic implication: The bedroom-community pattern is the structural reality Initiative 3 (Balanced Economy) tries to bend. Recruiting light manufacturing, craft production, and remote-work infrastructure brings jobs here rather than continuing to send the workforce out. The 7.7% remote-work share is also a meaningful base to grow — fiber broadband investment supports both demographic recruitment (Initiative 2) and economic diversification (Initiative 3) simultaneously.
Three clusters along I-5: North End (Florence Loop, Exit 732) is gas + Yaks + small retail; Downtown Core has all civic + dining + the small grocery; South End (Exit 729) is gas + Railroad Park. Critical healthcare and full grocery are 9 mi north in Mt. Shasta City. Specialty medical and the large hospital are 50 mi south in Redding.
Drive time as the access metric. Bars over 60 min show as "1h Xm". Missing services are common features in towns of this size that Dunsmuir lacks — shown as empty bars to make the gap visible.
Trucks dominate I-5 traffic in this corridor (it's the primary CA goods-movement route). Pass-through capture happens at gas, food, restrooms, and quick attractions. Hedge Creek Falls is the one I-5-adjacent attraction — trail starts at Exit 729. Mossbrae Falls trail closed. Capture rate per pass-through is roughly 3¢ in city sales tax.
Math: $135k Bradley-Burns sales tax ÷ 1% = $13.5M total taxable sales · $90k T&U tax ÷ 0.5% = $18M (split: ~$15M total) · subtract $3–5M resident share = ~$10–12M visitor + non-resident · plus $2.8M lodging ($389k TOT ÷ 14% combined rate) = $13–15M visitor capture. Compared to Kosmont 2024's $36M regional pool estimate (69,400 visitors × $200/day × 2.6 days). Most of the unreachable 62% is structural — visitors will keep gassing up on I-5, eating in Mt. Shasta where the restaurants are, skiing at the Ski Park.
TOT is the city's #2 General Fund revenue source after property tax. Combined effective rate 14% (12% city + 2% county). Two-day stays are the modal pattern — converting these to 3+ day stays is the single biggest economic lever Dunsmuir has.
Reading: Visitation in thousands/yr (700 = 700,000). Sentiment converts review aggregates to 0–100 scale. Asterisks (*) mark estimates — National parks, state parks have official counts (solid). Hedge Creek, Botanical Gardens, Mossbrae trail, Castle Lake, Lake Shastina visitor counts are estimates only.
Crater Lake (700k) and Lassen (400k) are huge but far — they're itinerary anchors, and Dunsmuir's job is to be the comfortable overnight stop on the way. Burney Falls (250k, 96% sentiment) and Mt. Shasta City (250k, 92%) are the close-in big draws. Castle Crags is criminally underutilized given proximity — 6 miles, 92% sentiment, only 75k visitors. Local Dunsmuir attractions score very well on sentiment but visitation is unmeasured — installing trail counters at Hedge Creek and Mossbrae would be the cheapest, highest-value diagnostic Dunsmuir can do.
Left: existing economic composition by approximate share of local jobs + payroll. Right: retail voids identified by Kosmont 2024, sized by estimated demand if filled. The gap between left and right is the diversification opportunity Initiative 3 (Balanced Economy) targets.
Three economic streams, three different playbooks. Highway pass-through is a volume game — millions of vehicles, a few cents each. Overnight tourism is a yield game — 69k visitors at high HHI, ~35–40% spending capture rate, addressable upside of $5–10M/yr from longer stays and downtown retail activation. Other industries are a base-load game — government, healthcare commute, retiree income, and the lifestyle-migration thesis for remote workers. The fastest fiscal payoff comes from overnight tourism (TOT is GF revenue #2). The most durable demographic fix comes from importing remote workers and young families. Pass-through is the "free option" — already happening, just needs better conversion at the I-5 exits.
Four initiatives the city could undertake. Each one is a portfolio of inputs that together produce an initiative intensity score (0-100). That intensity drives downstream lead and lag indicators, ultimately producing a letter grade on the strategic outcome each initiative is meant to achieve. Adjust the sliders at the bottom and watch grades shift at the top.