The office of San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria has released a draft budget for the upcoming fiscal year amid regional and national uncertainty.
The budget, which can be viewed here, is characterized as a “starting point” based on the best available economic data available at the time.
A final proposal will be released in May.
The proposed budget would close libraries on Sundays and Mondays, reduce tutoring programs there, reduce recreation center hours, and renegotiate the city’s contract with the San Diego Humane Society.
On the other hand, it will increase police and fire budgets, put money toward housing crisis needs, and address stormwater systems, roads, and other ongoing infrastructure problems.
“What we are putting forward at this time is a balanced, draft budget grounded in our economic reality,” said Gloria in a statement. “It will continue to keep our neighborhoods safe, remains focused on reducing homelessness and fixing our infrastructure, and largely protects core city services that our residents count on.”
“With the economic data we have now, we’ve made strategic decisions to minimize service-level reductions, avoid mass layoffs of the workers who keep our city operating, and invest in what matters most to San Diegans.”
Gloria announced that the city would need to address a $258 million budget deficit in the next fiscal year amid slow growth in property, hotel room, and sales taxes, as well as a dip in sales tax revenue, lower-than-anticipated franchise fees from San Diego Gas & Electric, and an increase in employee pension costs.
The draft budget includes $157 million in new revenues, which include updating parking meter rates and parking citation penalties; modernization of various user fees and the retail cannabis tax; and trash fees and an increased hotel room tax.
The draft budget proposes $175.9 million in reductions across all city departments. That includes a $30.5 million reduction in personnel costs, a $46.4 million reduction in other costs, a $35 million reduction in contracts with external companies, and a savings of $64 million by delaying contributions to city reserves.
The personnel cuts propose eliminating 393 positions, 160 of which are currently filled. The vast majority of employees in those filled positions are eligible to be transferred to other positions within the organization, the office said in a release.
Mayor Gloria will present the draft budget to the City Council in a public hearing on Monday, April 21. The City Council, serving as the Budget Review Committee, will hold a series of hearings from May 5 through 9.
The mayor will then release his revised, official budget proposal on May 14.
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