San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria is reversing his proposals to close a police station and eliminate detectives focused on prostitution — but there aren’t many other big changes in the revised budget he is releasing Wednesday.
Gloria wants to partially reverse proposed cuts to Humane Society funding, but he is sticking with plans to slash hours at city libraries and recreation centers, close restrooms in many city parks and cut millions in arts funding.
The mayor said global economic turbulence that threatens to shrink city revenues and raise city expenses makes it unwise to reverse other proposed cuts, such as reductions in parks maintenance and code enforcement.
“I wish this was a normal year where we are able to make restorations,” Gloria said of his May budget revision, which typically reverses the most unpopular cuts the mayor proposes in his initial budget each April.
The mayor also is still rejecting calls from some City Council to cut more deeply from services in wealthy neighborhoods to protect those same services in low-income areas, where some say they are needed more.
Gloria said it’s unwise to make uneven cuts partly because many San Diegans live in one neighborhood and work in another. He also said it would be confusing to residents to have hours at city facilities vary widely from neighborhood to neighborhood.
The release of the May revision now sets the stage for the city’s independent budget analyst and the council to work out a final budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1.
A public hearing to foster council debate is scheduled for June 6. The council is slated to adopt a final budget June 10, but that could be delayed if council struggle to reach consensus.
Gloria urged the council not to make aggressive restorations, calling his spending plan balanced, strategic and responsible.
“This is now entirely in the hands of the City Council, and I caution them to make responsible decisions about spending,” Gloria said.
Gloria’s May revision reverses plans to partially close the Police Department’s Northwestern Division station in Carmel Valley, which was strongly opposed by nearby residents.
The captain position overseeing that division would still not be filled. But other leadership positions would be, and patrols would continue to be deployed from the station.
The mayor also wants to reduce the number of citywide police detective positions he would eliminate from five to two so the city can retain its two vice detectives focused on prostitution.
Two other notable changes in the May revision include reversing a proposed cut to bomb squad staffing and partial restoration of a proposal to pay the Humane Society $3.5 million less for animal control.
The mayor now proposes to reduce the contract by only $1.5 million. And he’s also agreed to contribute $1 million in separate infrastructure funding to roof repairs at the Humane Society’s city-owned building in Linda Vista.
If the mayor’s budget is adopted, this would be the first time in many years that the city’s general fund would shrink from one fiscal year to the next.
Gloria is proposing a $2.15 billion budget for the new fiscal year — slightly less than the $2.16 billion budget adopted for the ongoing fiscal year.
The budget is shrinking because of a gaping projected deficit the city is facing. That deficit, initially announced as $258 million last fall, has been revised upward this spring to nearly $350 million.
Gloria’s budget proposes to close that gap with more than $100 million in budget cuts, canceling $64 million in scheduled contributions to city reserves and millions in higher revenues from new parking fees and higher city fees for many services.
He said it’s notable that his budget relies on two things the council hasn’t yet approved: a new trash fee for single-family homes that’s projected to save the city $74 million in its first year, and new parking fees in Balboa Park that are are expected to raise $11 million.
“I recognize the difficulty of both requests,” Gloria said.
The restorations Gloria proposes in the May revision add only $4.3 million to the budget. One source of that money is delaying the opening of five new parks that had been scheduled to open in the early stages of the new fiscal year.
Now East Village Green is projected to open next January, Rowan Elementary t-Use Park in March and three others — Eastbourne Neighborhood Park, Federal Boulevard Pocket Park and Pacific Beach t Use Park — all in July 2026.
Other new sources of revenue include higher fees for telecom leases at city buildings and higher trash disposal fees.
Another $600,000 comes from higher projections of tax revenue during the new fiscal year. That amount could have been as high as $4 million, but hotel tax revenue is projected to be $3.6 million lower than the mayor projected just one month ago.
City finance officials say the deepest cuts fall on libraries and parks because some city expenses are not negotiable, like the annual pension payment, and others are a higher priority, like public safety and infrastructure.
All 37 city library branches would be closed every Sunday and Monday, and weekly recreation center hours would be slashed to 40. Arts funding would drop from $15.3 million to $13.8 million.
