A sailboat cruises past the San Diego skyline in San Diego Harbor on Jul. 28. 2015.
San Diego, California – San Diego’s City Hall is bracing for another round of financial drama, with a jaw-dropping extra $110 million budget gap threatening to spark fresh cuts as early as this week. With last year’s $300 million hole still fresh in the memory, city leaders are scrambling to find solutions – but what will face the axe remains anybody’s guess.
Will library doors close earlier? Will Parks and Rec see the fun times cut short? Could jobs be on the line—or will more paid parking zones and sell-offs of city-owned land come into play? All options appear to be on the table as the deadline for updated council budget priorities looms this Friday, when they must land on the desk of the Office of Independent Budget Analysis.
This financial black cloud arrives just as Balboa Park visitors start paying for parking and residents cough up for city trash collection—unpopular measures rolled out to find short-term cash. Last month, Mayor Todd Gloria fired off a memo to department heads, ordering belt-tightening across the board by hacking away noncritical overtime and scrutinizing contracts for possible slashing or renegotiation.
Despite previous talk of staff reductions to save cash, those proposals have mostly stalled. When pressed by NBC 7 back in December about whether city layoffs are imminent, the mayor’s office played it close to the vest: ‘Mayor Gloria, as the city’s chief executive, determines department staffing to ensure city services keep running while adhering to the adopted budget,’ a spokesperson insisted.
Meanwhile, prominent voices are rising against some revenue-raising ideas. Donna Frye—a former council member, entrepreneur, and environmental advocate—has been rallying locals to push back against any plan to charge parking fees at the beaches or Mission Bay. Frye, writing in the OB Rag, urged residents to flood the city council with calls and emails opposing the waterfront parking charges, particularly as four councilmembers have openly floated the idea.
All these woes might have been expected: Back in June, after the council—overriding Mayor Gloria’s veto—pushed through a mammoth $6 billion 2025-26 city budget by a 6-3 vote, Gloria sounded the alarm about looming fiscal headaches. City officials promoted new revenue from Balboa Park parking and flashy digital billboard advertising to help plug the gaps—but their projections have flopped from an anticipated $12 million to a humbling $3 to $4 million windfall.
Yet some city power-brokers are still betting on brighter days. Councilmember Sean Elo-Rivera, speaking in June, declared, ‘Austerity is the wrong choice. Abundance is in our future.’ For now, though, it’s cuts—and not abundance—that appear to be on the horizon for America’s Finest City.
