Sanders to unveil city budget proposal next week

By Alison St John / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published April 5, 2006 at 9:00 PM PDT

This story was published more than 18 years ago.

San Diego mayor Jerry Sanders says the budget proposal he'll unveil next week will be the turning point for San Diego's financial crisis.

He made his comment Thursday, at a combined meeting of the Catfish Club and the City Club. KPBS reporter Alison St John has more.

Mayor Sanders said it will take more than one year to turn the city's financial tailspin around, but this year's budget will be the starting point. There's some positive news -- city revenues are $40 million higher than expected. But Sanders said he wont engage in smoke and mirrors tactics to hide expenditures. He has authorized an audit of the water and sewer departments' enterprise funds

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Sanders: "That's about a three month project but I think its pivotal if we want to convince san diegans that in order to repair the infrastructure for water and sewer and waste water that me might need to raise rates."

Critics have suggested water rates have been used in the past to fill t city budget holes in other departments. Sanders says this year's budget will be the start of a comprehensive recovery plan. 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.