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City's Budget Not Yet Out of the Woods.

The city of San Diego’s libraries are safe from budget cuts for the moment. But the round of budget cuts the city council approved this week may not be the last during this fiscal year. KPBS reporter

City's Budget Not Yet Out of the Woods.

The city of San Diego’s libraries are safe from budget cuts for the moment. But the round of budget cuts the city council approved this week may not be the last during this fiscal year. KPBS reporter Alison St John has more.

San Diego city council chose not to follow the mayor’s suggestion to close 7 libraries and 9 Rec. centers to meet a mid year short fall of $43 million.

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But the city’s chief financial officer, Mary Lewis, points out that the city has not even reached the middle of the fiscal year yet, and there could be another round of mid year budget cuts next February.

Lewis : We don’t know what the holiday season's going to mean in terms of sales tax revenues, we know it's going to be down, we don’t know how far down, so it's just constant monitoring, and if we see a decline in revenues beyond what we’re projecting, we may need to look at additional savings.

Lewis says the biggest threat looming over the city’s budget is the state’s budget shortfall. If the state chooses to use a bigger slice of municipal property taxes to solve its problems, that will require more painful decisions for cities, including San Diego.

Alison St John, KPBS news.