New budget proposal may get unfavorable response

By Alison St John / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published February 16, 2006 at 9:00 PM PST

This story was published more than 18 years ago.

San Diego mayor Jerry Sanders and members of the city council have laid out a time line for this year's budget process. It allows for the mayor and council to settle any disagreements and for the publ

San Diego mayor Jerry Sanders and members of the city council have laid out a time line for this year's budget process. It allows for the mayor and council to settle any disagreements and for the public to have input before the June deadline. KPBS reporter Alison St John has more.

The city of San Diego is gearing up for what, likely, is going to be a very unpopular process politically. The city will find out next month the true size of the pension deficit, and no one doubts the resulting payments will eat into the money available in the budget.

Toni Atkins chairs the council's budget committee. She says once the mayor proposes his plan April 14th, the public will be invited to comment at several meetings in April and May. But Atkins says the public may not be able to change as much as they have in previous years.

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Atkins: "There's going to be no smoke and mirrors, we don't have any wiggle room, I think the council's going to have a tough year, the mayor's going to have a tough time producing it and I think the public's going to have a tough time accepting it."

The council can modify the mayor's budget and the mayor can approve or veto those changes. The council would need five votes to override a veto. Alison St John, KPBS news.

Alison St John

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Alison St John currently serves as a general assignment reporter and occasionally co-hosts KPBS Midday Edition. She fell in love with KPBS Radio when she arrived in San Diego in 1985 and first heard NPR. She has been a voice on KPBS Radio since 1989, and has served as a news reporter for radio, TV and the web, as well as anchoring, hosting, producing and editing. Alison has reported on stories about North County and was based in the KPBS' North County Bureau. Alison covered the metro beat during the critical period of the San Diego City pension crisis, and the education beat while Alan Bersin was the controversial Superintendent of San Diego City School District. She covered health when the industry was converting to managed care and told welfare reform stories in the late 1990s when Clinton was “ending welfare as we know it.” She has covered land use issues extensively, looking at the challenges of meeting a growing population while preserving community character, and developing a better transportation system to meet environmental concerns. She has done many stories on the military in San Diego, and the series she edited on the challenges veterans face returning from active duty to civilian life won “Best of Show” from the San Diego Society of Professional Journalists. She occasionally hosts the KPBS Roundtable and KPBS Midday Edition. Alison has won awards from the San Diego Press Club, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Associated Press TV and Radio Association, and the California Golden Mike Awards. Alison was born in Tanzania, brought up in Scotland, and earned her degree in psychology and sociology from Durham University in England. Her postgraduate diploma is in student counseling. She worked in England, Nigeria, Switzerland, Belgium, India, and Japan before moving to the United States in 1981. She now lives in Oceanside and enjoys how her community is growing and changing.