Politics

City To Wrap Current Shortfall Into Future Deficit Reduction Plan

By Alison St John / Reporter

Published November 23, 2009 at 1:02 PM PST

This story was published more than 15 years ago.

City to Wrap Current Shortfall Into Future Deficit Reduction Plan.

The city of San Diego’s independent budget analyst says there is already a multi million dollar short fall in the first quarter of this fiscal year. However she is not recommending any cuts - at least not yet!

The city of San Diego’s independent budget analyst says there is already a multi-million-dollar short fall in the first quarter of this fiscal year. However she is not recommending any cuts -- at least not yet.

Independent budget analyst Andrea Tevlin says the shortfall for this quarter, just over $7 million, is a foretaste of the much larger deficit projected for next year -- $179 million.

She recommends the council wait and consider how to close the current shortfall as part of the mayor’s overall budget proposal.

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“There will be recommendations put forth for 18 months worth of reductions, starting in January,” Tevlin said, “to address the full $179 million deficit.”

Next year’s deficit is more than twice as large as the budget gap the city had to close this time last year. Falling tax revenues and rising pension obligations are to blame, as well as an ongoing structural deficit the city is struggling to solve.

City services like police, fire, parks and libraries only survived last year because city employees took a 6 percent pay cut. The mayor says service reductions are inevitable next year.

Sanders is expected to release his budget proposal tomorrow at 1 p.m.

The city council is scheduled to debate his plan in December.

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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.