S1: Welcome in San Diego. It's Jade Hindman on today's show. San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria unveiled his city budget for 2027. We take a look at what's in it and what's not. This is KPBS Midday Edition. Connecting our communities through conversation. Earlier today , San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria released his proposed city budget for the coming fiscal year to address the city's nearly $150 million deficit.
S2: This shortfall has been building over decades. We are dealing with rising costs , outpacing our revenue , significant deferred maintenance and growing uncertainty from state and federal decisions. And this didn't happen overnight , and we will not solve it overnight.
S1: Well , as many expected , the budget calls for some deep cuts for the city , the arts. Rec centers and libraries all face cutbacks in the mayor's latest budget. Here to walk us through what's included and what's not are John Carroll , general assignment reporter here at KPBS. Along with David Garrick , he covers City hall for the for the San Diego Union Tribune. So welcome to you both.
S3: Thanks , Jade. Thanks for having me.
S1: Glad to have you both here.
S3: I've been covering the city about 12 or 13 years now , and this is probably the bleakest budget I've seen. Last year was another tough year , but these cuts are pretty deep. I mean , arts funding is basically pretty much going away to local arts organizations , 12 million that they typically get , and they use that money to get matching grants and matching funds. And it's not just being cut , it's going from whatever it is to zero. Uh , so that's going to be a huge impact. And libraries and rec centers , which were already cut last year , are going to get a second cut that looks like it's maybe of equal or maybe even greater. Hmm.
S1: Hmm. Well , John , how big of a deficit is the city facing and does this proposed budget. Address it fully ? Well.
S4: They were saying as of a couple of days ago , $120 million. But as we were talking about with David before the show , it's now up to $146 million. And then it doesn't end there. They're talking about down the road for this coming fiscal years , between 2027 and 2031 , it's expected to be 540 million. So this is a problem that is not going away. Now the answer to does this solve it ? The budget is legally balanced. It addresses the deficit on paper. But the mayor says this is not a permanent solution. Rather it's a first step. Further reductions could come depending on state and federal funding and broader economic conditions.
S1: You know , David , something that was concerning about what you previously said is that there will be more cuts to rec centers and parks. They already faced deep cuts.
S3: They're open , and they'll be it'll be a big negotiation. I'm sure that most of them will stay open. It'll just be limited hours. And then maybe in certain wealthy areas you may see full closures would be my guess. Mm.
S1: Mm. This budget also calls for furloughs for some city workers. So David , tell us about those. And how big of a chunk they would take from the deficit.
S3: Uh , yeah. The furloughs I think , are 26 million is what they add up to. Um , they're still being negotiated with the unions now , but the MTA , the largest city employee union with 5400 employees , has already agreed to furloughs. Basically , employees would have to take one week off with no pay. Um , but they did a raise in return , so it doesn't save as much , maybe as it looks like. But it's a way to avoid having the budget grow , because that's what's really creating this problem is employees continue to get raises And , you know , the city's revenue is not going up as fast. Home sales are slowing , so property taxes aren't going up as fast. And hotel taxes , which are crucial in a tourist friendly city like San Diego , are not going up. In fact , they're going down. Hmm.
S1: Hmm. Well , John , you often cover the arts and culture here in San Diego , and that was a big focus of the cuts , this budget.
S4: As David was saying , they're facing an almost $12 million cut. $2 million is still going to be distributed to them. But that's kind of a drop in the bucket when looked at the overall situation. I did talk to Bob Lehman , who's the executive director of Art matters , which is an arts advocacy organization that works in San Diego and Imperial counties as well as Tijuana. He actually was there for the news conference this morning. He said , what the city should have done is spread that nearly $12 million cut across all the departments instead of just one big cut for the arts organizations. He also pointed out that those very organizations bring in a lot of revenue to the city. He says , basically , the city is cutting off its nose to spite its face here. And then he went on to say that the language used , the language used this morning by the mayor and the chief financial officer make it sound like this cut will be permanent. That is , even if financial matters improve down the road , this money may be gone for good. So there they , the arts people I know , got together on an emergency zoom meeting yesterday , and they're just trying to figure out what to do next. Wow.
S1: Wow.
S3: Well , one thing I would , I would , I would add in there though is the council has prioritized arts funding. Obviously if there's no money , you can't do anything. But I would suspect that this is going to be negotiated aggressively this spring between the mayor and the council and that some of that money will be restored. It really prioritized it and been vocal about it. Well we'll see. Yeah.
S1: Yeah. We will. I mean , while there are those cuts , Not everything was cut. Um , you know , tell us about how cuts for or costs , rather for public safety and fire are being addressed in this budget , John.
S4: Well , actually , we have some sound from the mayor talking about that this morning that we can play.
S2: I refuse to accept fire station brownouts or police station closures , options that we had considered early on. I also refuse to reduce neighborhood patrols when you call 911 for help in an emergency. Trained professionals should show up to help you with this proposal. They will.
S4: So they're obviously putting dollars into the police department and the fire rescue department. Also , he made the point that infrastructure , the roads , filling potholes , repaving roads will stay on track. He says that he hears that. And I'm sure he does when he's out in the public all the time that people are talking about public safety , about the response times and about smoothing out the roads.
S1:
S3: It might even be worse than we're talking about , because this city has not really worked on its infrastructure. So you have crumbling buildings they should be fixing and the reserves are 200 million instead of the 350 that's recommended by , you know , standard practice. So it's really an ugly situation. They have a sales tax measure that might go in 2028. And they really need to have that pass. Or it could be really ugly.
S4: Also with the museums , I just know because I cover them closely. Uh , you know , the city is the landlord of the museums , the 18 museums and cultural institutions in Balboa Park. And I've talked to most of the heads of those museums , and they say that the buildings are in various states of disrepair , that when it rains , they have to put out trash cans because the roof is leaking. So there's just needs everywhere you look. Jade.
S1: Yeah , yeah. The needs are growing budgets. Not though. Yeah. Um , David. And something else that that I was curious about. Your colleague Jeff McDonald recently reported on the rise of the city's middle managers in recent years.
S3: And the mayor's been talking about that. I mean , I think there's been a change in direction at City Hall. I mean , I think there are a lot of middle managers were being hired. They're called program managers and program coordinators. They're easier to hire. You can set the salary when you need to fill an important position. It's the easiest way to go. But the number of them has exploded in recent years. And there are maybe 30 , 40 , 50 million of the budget highly paid people making over $200,000 a year. That rubs a lot of people the wrong way. And labor unions have raised some concerns about it , and the mayor says no more of that. There aren't going to be any more of those positions. And he's cut , I think , 4 or 5 dozen in this budget , or at least in the last few months. And they're reflected in this budget saving like 30 million bucks. Wow.
S1: Wow. Well , John , you were downtown this morning for the mayor's unveiling of this budget.
S4: Um , there has been other reaction. Most pointedly coming from the San Diego County Taxpayers Association that got out in front of this with a statement. They talked about a 21 page analysis they've done , saying that the average San Diego taxpayer is paying a higher cost per person for services today than they did 15 years ago. They raised other concerns about escalating overtime , unfunded pension obligations , of course , as David was mentioning , lapses in infrastructure maintenance and a history of approving overly optimistic revenue assumptions in order to pass balanced budgets. So I asked the mayor about that , and he didn't mince words. He said that the Taxpayers Association lives in a glass house when it comes to finances , and that they should get their own act together before criticizing other people. Uh , some of our listeners may recall that last year , the County Taxpayers Association basically suffered a financial collapse after Haynie hung their former executive director left. Now , the executive director is none other than Mark Kersey , who is a former member of the San Diego City Council. David Arquette , who heads up the Municipal Employees Association , was there this morning and he he was pretty upset with Kersey , he said. Who ever saw that tripling in those managers ? Mark Kersey , who was on the San Diego City Council. And he said , so it's a little rich to be hearing that from him. So tensions are high , smoke everywhere.
S1: Everybody's catching it. So I mean , David , lots going on there. Walk us through the budget process though and where it goes from here. Yeah.
S3: Yeah. So this was April 15th is the day the mayor is required to unveil a proposed budget. Then in early May , the city council will actually go department by department and comb through every detail of each individual department's cuts and additions and the total expenditures. Then in mid-May , the mayor released something called the May revise , which is a reaction to the council debate and also an update on what sort of finances have changed in the months since he released his original one. That's usually an opportunity for him to add a few things in that have gotten the most sort of backlash , you know , to fix some some mistakes he might have made in the document we're talking about now. And then the council will start their actual debate. They're scheduled to be adopted a final budget on June 9th. But with the kind of contention I see here , I'm thinking it might get pushed into late June. And the deadline is , of course , the end of June.
S1: All right. I've been speaking with David Garrick , City Hall reporter with the San Diego Union Tribune , along with KPBS reporter John Carroll. Thanks to you both. Thanks.
S4: Thanks.
S3: Thanks for having me.
S1: That's our show for today. I'm your host , Jade Hindman. Thanks for tuning in to Midday Edition. Be sure to have a great day on purpose , everyone.
