San Diego’s leaders are not suffering from a lack of money; they are suffering from a lack of discipline. They keep raiding the general fund for political vanity projects and then come back to residents insisting there’s “no choice” but to approve yet another tax for basic obligations they chose to ignore.
The new Balboa Park property‑tax proposal is a perfect example. City Hall first moved to charge for what was free for generations — parking in and around Balboa Park — and now dangles the possibility of removing those fees if voters will just agree to a new, permanent tax on their homes.
This is not responsible budgeting; it is ransom politics: “Pay this new tax, or we’ll keep nickel‑and‑diming you through fees and meters.”
This framing conveniently hides the truth: there is already plenty of money flowing into the city’s coffers. Record‑high budgets and growing revenues somehow never seem to be enough when officials insist on funding every shiny new idea, then act shocked when there’s nothing left for the unglamorous essentials.
The general fund is supposed to pay for core services and obligations. Instead, it has become an ATM for political projects and branding exercises. When the city pours money into new vanity projects like the “promenades” in the Gaslamp and Hillcrest, it is making a very clear choice: image over infrastructure, symbolism over substance.
Every time the city celebrates another ribbon‑cutting for a promenade, a “placemaking” project or a consultant‑driven initiative, that is money that could have gone to aging dams, crumbling roads, decaying park facilities and basic public safety.
The city’s obligations are not mysteries. Dams don’t suddenly turn 100 years old. Roads don’t crumble overnight. Balboa Park’s buildings and utilities have been screaming for serious investment for decades. Yet year after year, the budget priorities tell the same story: the unsexy work gets deferred, while the political showpieces get green‑lit and fast‑tracked.
This is backwards. The city’s first duty is to make sure infrastructure is safe, water systems are reliable, parks and libraries are functional, and police and fire are adequately resourced. Only after those boxes are checked — fully and consistently — should the city spend a dime on aspirational “transformational” projects.
San Diego’s leadership likes to market itself as bold and progressive: climate declarations, design awards, global titles, new taxes meant to “shape behavior” and “advance equity.” On paper, it sounds enlightened. In practice, it often means lavishing money on initiatives that reward optics over outcomes.
The result is profoundly regressive. The costs of these choices land hardest on the people least able to absorb them: middle‑class homeowners, working families, small businesses and renters who end up paying higher pass‑through costs in rent, fees and prices. “Tax the rich” is the slogan, but “squeeze the middle” is the reality.
San Diegans are not heartless; we love Balboa Park and want it maintained and improved. But love for the park does not require blind trust in a City Hall that has repeatedly proven it will fund political pet projects before it funds basic obligations.That’s not hypothetical — the city’s own budget shows it carved $3 million out of the general fund for the San Diego–Tijuana World Design Capital 2024 project — an egregious choice to fund a binational vanity project before their own city’s basic obligations.Until the city can demonstrate that it will put core infrastructure and essential services ahead of vanity projects, voters should reject any new property tax tied to the park.
The message needs to be simple and firm:
No more special taxes until you fix your priorities No more raiding the general fund for political projects and then crying poverty No more holding residents’ quality of life hostage to cover for your own mismanagementIf city leaders want additional trust — and additional money — they should earn it by proving they can govern like adults: balance the budget honestly, fund the necessities first, and only then come to voters with carefully justified, tightly focused proposals. Until that day, the right answer on a Balboa Park property tax is an unambiguous “no.”
Mary Davis is a self-described government watchdog. She is a retired San Diego Police dispatch supervisor and serves on the San Diego County Commission on the Status of Women and Girls.
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