The people of San Diego have had enough. The politicians created a massive deficit. To cover it, they wanted families and businesses to pay more in taxes. Never a word about cutting back government spending. So, the people said NO to more taxes. Now the hacks running San Diego are faced with cutting spending. I bet the donors and special interests are upset.
“For several years, the city of San Diego has been battling against rising city expenditures. During and shortly after the COVID-19 pandemic, the city managed to stay afloat thanks to federal and state funding tied to the pandemic. However, after those funds ended a few years ago, San Diego quickly realized a $170 million deficit. While cuts to libraries and parks were looked at, the city solved those with one-year stop gap solutions such as strategically cutting in areas and brining in one-time only funds.
Needing a more permanent solution, the city proposed a 1% sales tax increase ballot proposition earlier this year, which would have increased the rate from 7.75% to 8.75%, to bring in a projected $400 million in revenue. These funds would have solved the deficit, with enough remaining for infrastructure projects, city services, and first responder pay increases.”
This is how to control government—refuse to give it any more money. Let them live within our means.
San Diego Sales Tax Increase Failed: Mayor Todd Gloria Announces $258 Million Projected Deficit
Measure E would have brought in an additional $400 million to the city each year
By Evan Symon, California Globe, 12/5/24 https://californiaglobe.com/fr/san-diego-sales-tax-increase-failed-mayor-todd-gloria-announces-258-million-projected-deficit/
San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria announced Wednesday that the city is facing a projected deficit of $258 million next year following the failure of a ballot initiative that would have increased the sales tax. This will result in a likely hiring freeze and major cuts in the city budget.
For several years, the city of San Diego has been battling against rising city expenditures. During and shortly after the COVID-19 pandemic, the city managed to stay afloat thanks to federal and state funding tied to the pandemic. However, after those funds ended a few years ago, San Diego quickly realized a $170 million deficit. While cuts to libraries and parks were looked at, the city solved those with one-year stop gap solutions such as strategically cutting in areas and brining in one-time only funds.
Needing a more permanent solution, the city proposed a 1% sales tax increase ballot proposition earlier this year, which would have increased the rate from 7.75% to 8.75%, to bring in a projected $400 million in revenue. These funds would have solved the deficit, with enough remaining for infrastructure projects, city services, and first responder pay increases.
However, many San Diegans opposed the tax increase, as they said it would put an undue burden on them with the rising cost of living and the high cost of renting and home ownership in the city. Mayor Gloria also entered a battle of his own when his opponent in the Mayoral race, Larry Turner, began hammering on Gloria over the tax increase. Ultimately, on election day, Gloria won by over 55% of the vote. Measure E, in stark contrast, failed by a narrow 288,446 to 284,940 vote total, or 50.3% to 49.7%. A County tax increase also failed by a similar margin.
Failure of Measure E
The defeat of Measure E came as a stunning loss, as the city was relying on the increase to stay out of a deficit. This led to Wednesday when Mayor Gloria announced that the city is now facing a $258 million budget deficit next year. Faced with needed extreme measures to avoid this, Gloria announced that there would be a hiring freeze in the city except for essential positions. In addition, all overtime will now be suspended, as will all travel and training for city employees. Huge projects, like the Civic Center revitalization project, are also now effectively canceled. The city will also now look into monetizing city-owned public locations such as Golden Hall.
“Measure E would have stabilized the city budget for the foreseeable future and allowed us to build on progress we’ve made with record infrastructure investments in recent years,” said Gloria on Wednesday. “Without these additional funds, next year’s budget process will be difficult, but we’ll use this as an opportunity to re-imagine how the city operates, with a focus on delivering core services: repairing roads and other critical infrastructure, building more housing, addressing homelessness, and keeping San Diegans safe.”
Gloria then proceeded to ask neighboring cities for help with issues like homelessness, adding, “Those other cities should follow our lead and take vacant parking lots and turn them into safe parking lots, open up shuttered city facilities and make them shelters as we have done here, all of us have a role in solving this problem and this budget situation will make that even more clear.”
City Council President Joe LaCava also added that “The Five-Year Financial Outlook makes it clear that projected revenue is insufficient to meet the needs of our city. The takeaway is unmistakable. We must cut expenses, and some cuts will be deep. Very deep. I ask my council colleagues to engage now to safeguard the safety of all San Diegans, protect our most vulnerable residents, meet the needs of under-resourced neighborhoods, and ensure a thriving economy. The council will work to protect all city services, but the outlook tells us that will not be possible.”
While the city hopes to solve the deficit in the next 6 to 18 months instead of over several years, many have said that, without even more cuts, the city is likely to stay in the red for quite some time.
“The city should have asked for a more modest sales tax increase instead, then combine it with some of those cuts they outlined,” explained Cynthia Wallace, a Southern California pollster, to the Globe on Thursday. “Measure E failed because that 1% was a lot to San Diegans. It should have been maybe .5%, then with adds explaining what they would be getting out of it. Or maybe look into removing the or reducing the most unpopular city services, like homeless funding. A lot of polls showed that that would have been really popular with voters.
“But no, instead they got greedy, went with 1% then had to act surprised when it failed. They forgot about the little guy, and the thing is, there is a whole lot of them. My gut tells me that they will try for another increase very soon. And this time, they probably won’t be shooting for the moon. It will be more modest. And with this deficit, it will probably win some people over. But what the city needs to do, right now, is get people to trust them again in order to move forward with solving this deficit, and that is a very tall order.”
