What's up with the budget? City's final vote is Tuesday

S1: Welcome in San Diego , it's Jade Hindman. On today's show , San Diego's city budget is up for a final vote. So how might your tax dollars be used even though money is short? This is KPBS Midday Edition. Connecting our communities through conversation. The San Diego City Council is set to vote on a final budget tomorrow , with a budget deficit of at least $118 million. There is a lot of contention about what should be cut. If the council can't reach a consensus tomorrow , negotiations could drag on. So what's up for debate? Well , joining me now to talk about it is David Garrick. He covers City hall for the San Diego Union-Tribune. David , welcome back to Midday Edition.

S2: Thanks for having me.

S1: Glad to have you here. As we mentioned , the city is facing a major budget deficit. How did we get to this point?

S2: Well , it's years and years of , I think , what people would call mistakes and errors. It's a pension problem. It's neglecting infrastructure that was crumbling because the city was all built in the 60s and 70s and , you know , giving employees raises that they probably needed , but that the city really arguably couldn't have afforded.

S1: So how does this year's budget picture compare to deficits in years past?

S2: Well , I think it's it's bigger. But the key is that because of the federal pandemic aid that that a lot of cities got. I think the problem sort of got punted a few years. So it's really coming home to roost now because that federal pandemic aid has has washed up. Hmm.

S1: Hmm. Okay. So so before we get into the details of the budget , can we do some 101 here? Can you remind us how this process works between city council members , the mayor , the independent budget analysis analyst and the general public? All these players are involved here. So how does it work? Sure.

S2: Sure. So the city of San Diego has a strong mayor form of government , which most other cities in the region and the state don't have. And so the mayor in April , mid April , he has to put out a proposed budget , has to be balanced. He has to estimate how much money the city will have in the upcoming fiscal year , which starts July 1st. And then he has to say this is what we're going to spend it on. He gives that proposal on April 15th , and then there's always cuts in it , and everyone screams and cries and gets upset and gets frustrated. And there's lots of public hearings with lots of angst and hate and crying. Uh , and then on May 15th , he puts out a second budget called the May revise that restores some of those things. And now it's in the hands of the city council , and they are supposed to to approve a budget by the end of June.

S1: Well , all right , so weeks of debate so far have led us to this , this moment. Um , in the proposed budget , one of the biggest points of controversy is cuts to arts and culture funding. But there were some updates to that on Friday. Right.

S2: Big news , big news. Both short term and long term. Uh , short term that the the 11.8 million in cuts. Is going to be mostly reversed with a 3 million from the previous foundation , a philanthropic group , and then 6 million. They're going to do some clever shell game adjustment with some convention center funding. So they got 9 million , and then they found another 1.5 million that are like festival money that they're going to use. So they have basically almost reversed the entire cut. That's short term but long term. They say these are one time solutions. We're not doing this again next year. The goal is to create a regional collaboration between the county and the city and other government entities , and philanthropy and state grants , and come up with a better long term solution than this crazy one , where every year the mayor says he's going to cut it. Every year , arts organizations scream , and every year it gets restored at the last minute. It's not good for anybody.

S1: All right. Well , and so now there are proposed cuts to so-called mid-level manager positions at the city. Leaders , of course , remain at odds on that front. What are the conflicting narratives there?

S2: Yeah , I mean , the city probably does have some folks who are making in the 200 to $300,000 range who maybe , maybe aren't as essential as they could be. Um , but I also think it's also been used by a lot of people to criticize and say , well , we shouldn't have to pay more taxes. They just should get rid of the middle managers. So those are the sort of the conflicting narratives. But the mayor has conceded that there were too many of those folks. And.

S1: David , are you saying.

S2: Yeah , I'm I'm here , I'm here.

S1: Yeah , I've got you. Go ahead. Gotcha.

S2: Gotcha. Uh , the mayor has conceded that there were too many of those folks , and he eliminated somewhere between 50 and 80 of those positions. But each one of them is really under scrutiny because they are very highly paid. And , you know , it's just easy to point out someone making $280,000 a year. You have to question , I mean , you know , what are they doing to warrant that amount of compensation? Hmm.

S1: Hmm. There's also a proposal by for city council members to reverse cuts to libraries and rec centers. How likely is that to happen?

S2: You know , if I were a gambler , I would say likely. I think that they only need one more person to join them. It's a nine member council , so four is almost all the way to five , which is the majority. Um , it's certainly a popular thing to do. On the other hand , the mayor reversed mayor in April , announced some pretty hefty cuts to libraries and rec centers , and then in his May revise , he slashed that in half , I would say. So in a way , these cuts are small enough that maybe they'll flow. About nine libraries would lose one day of service , and about 24 rec centers would lose about 15 hours of weekly being open. So I don't know. My guess is it's only about $3 million. And my guess is that'll be one of the things on Tuesday that gets restored.

S1: All right. What does funding for homelessness programs look like under this proposed budget?

S2: Yeah , the mayor wanted to prioritize keeping as much of that in place as possible. He proposed a $3.8 million cut , which is about 100 million. So it's it's only about a 4 or 5 , six something that percent cut. Uh , the council quartet agreed that that amount was warranted , but they didn't like the way that he had done it. Based on some advice from the Housing Commission and some other homelessness advocates. So they proposed cutting the same amount , 3.8 million , but cutting it in slightly different ways , with one shelter closing for more hours. Those kind of little nuanced things. And that's the that's the proposal that the EBA adopted. So that's what will be presented tomorrow. I don't know if they'll be further tinkering with that , but I think that's probably how it will end up getting adopted.

S1: And despite a few cuts to public safety programs , the police budget is increasing by about 2% under the mayor's proposal. For context on that , um , the budget is already over $700 million. Mayor Gloria has said he'll never defund the police. But how do those frequent increases really factor into the budget picture here? Yeah.

S2: Yeah. You know , it's hard because employees get raises based on longevity when they hit certain milestone years of service , five years or ten years. It's like even if you cut nothing , right? Or even if you don't add anything , the budget goes up for an individual department just because the pay and compensation go up , health care costs go up. So please start budget. Really , I would argue , is staying flat. I mean , while it's going up 2% , that's actually probably smaller than inflation. So I think the mayor did what he said. He said he was going to prioritize keeping public safety and infrastructure and homelessness for really small or non cuts and then having significant cuts elsewhere. And I think that's the budget he proposed.

S1: And the budget analyst is also looking ahead to predict how future budgets could be impacted by trash fees. What's happening on that front? We've heard so much about the trash fees , right?

S2: Well , there was a big settlement about two weeks ago that the city council approved in closed session. They're actually scheduled to approve it in open session today. Uh , and it was a complicated settlement to get rid of a lawsuit that had challenged the new trash fee for single family homes and a ballot measure proposed by the Lincoln Club that could have wiped out the fee for two years. So it was a big there was a lot at stake in the city , was nervous about what might happen , so the city agreed to settle it. The carrot that they dangled in front of those people was eliminating parking in Balboa Park starting this January , coming January. So that deal was approved in closed session about two weeks ago. And the key impact , though long term for the city budget , is the city was expecting to get about 125 million a year in trash fees , and now they're going to get something like 75 million a year because they've agreed to lower trash fees. And that means in fiscal year 28 and fiscal year 29 upcoming budgets , not the one being approved now , but upcoming budgets , they're going to have about a $50 million hole to fill. So that's a concern that the IBA has stressed to the council about not adding too much money in tomorrow , because it's just going to make it harder to solve that problem the following year. Hmm.

S1: Hmm. There's also so much to dig into with this budget. But another interesting debate has to do with the city's multi-modal team , which , you know , that team helps plan bike lanes and pedestrian friendly intersections. Remind us what you know that is exactly and why the cuts are so controversial there. Yeah.

S2: Yeah. It's been an interesting one to cover because it's not something you would think is crucially important , but there's been a lot of backlash against it. It's about $2.7 million. It's a team of engineers that sort of every time there's an intersection planned or a new change plan , the bike lane or a stoplight or a new turning pocket , they come in and analyze the intersection and make sure that it'll be friendly for bicyclists and pedestrians. Pretty useful , but when you're cutting back to only the essentials , you could see how maybe that would be something that the mayor would think you should cut. Um , anyway , but there's been a lot of backlash. Circulate. San Diego , the San Diego County Bike Bicycle Coalition bike is pretty much every group that you'd think has cared about this has been pretty vocal. Also , a lot of ordinary folks , and it looks like they're probably going to keep it. They're probably going to just reduce the amount of slurry seal by about 20 miles next year. That's the type of paving in order to take the money that they would spend on SEO and instead spend it on this multi-modal team.

S1: How has the community responded to this round of budget cuts? And should we expect to see that energy at tomorrow's meeting.

S2: I think we will. Although , on the other hand , you would argue that because the arts cuts have been softened , because the rec center and library cuts have been softened , I think probably the most angst you saw was probably in late April and early May. Most of the folks who were really frustrated have gotten at least partly or all back of what they were frustrated about. But that's why you're sort of seeing a new wave of folks like the people frustrated about the multimodal team. They weren't around in late April. Now they've come out because , you know , the other folks are satisfied , or at least less upset than they had been in the first place.

S1: You know , every year , I mean , it seems we talk about how the city is facing a major budget deficit. How do we end the cycle , do you think? I mean , what are some potential long term solutions that seem viable from from your reporting?

S2: Yeah , most people at City Hall point to a sales tax increase. San Diego has the lowest sales tax rate of any city in the region and any any large city in the state , 7.75% is much lower than LA. And Oakland and San Jose are 9 10%. Uh , you know , even just going from 7.75 to 8.75 would give the city $400 million a year , which would solve all these problems we've talked about and allow the city to address its infrastructure deficit. City put a sales tax measure on the ballot in November of 2024 , and it narrowly failed. But since then , city has sort of lost , uh , you know , its credibility with voters because of the trash fees , because of Balboa Park parking. So most folks say that if they went with another sales tax increase , it probably wouldn't come as close as the 1 in 2024. So that may be a longer term solution in 2028 or 2030 , something like that.

S1: Well , the city's budget debate is scheduled for 2 p.m. tomorrow. What will you be most interested in as you watch that unfold?

S2: I think the rec center and library hours , because even though I think it got restored , I'm not sure. And that affects so many people and so many low income communities. They rely on the library as a meeting place , a place for job searches , a place to do resumes , a place for children to get homework help after school. So those are crucial and really affect people. And it's not certain whether those hours will be restored or not. So I think that's probably the most important thing to watch.

S1: I've been speaking with David Garrick. He covers City hall for the San Diego Union Tribune. David , thank you so much for being here.

S2: 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.