SAN DIEGO — San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria unveiled his FY 2025 budget Friday morning, proposing an increase in spending on homelessness and stormwater infrastructure, despite a projected budget shortfall of $136.8 million.
"This budget reflects our continued commitment to getting people off the streets and into care," said Gloria during a news conference held at the Chollas Operations Yard.
Gloria wants to spend an additional $26 million on the homelessness crisis, which includes adding 1,000 shelter beds in Middletown and expanding the city's Safe Parking Program.
"The second issue I hear about from San Diegans by far is fixing the damn roads," he said.
He proposes spending more money on road repair to pave 75 miles in the next year, rather than 60 miles. He also proposes shelling out $85 million for stormwater infrastructure, to help prevent some of the devastating flooding that took place in January.
The mayor's budget doesn't include any major cutbacks, though he does suggest getting rid of three positions in the city's immigrant affairs office.
To balance the books, Gloria made what he said are one-time financial moves, like canceling $30 million in scheduled reserve contributions.
"These are one time measures made with the hope we will see improved economic conditions in the very near future," said Gloria.
"When you start to cut away at your reserve, that's the rainy day fund," said Haney Hong, President of the San Diego Taxpayers Association.
"We must stop shuffling deck chairs and focus on real budget reform and get the structure right," he added.
He said taxing residents more isn't the answer.
Gloria wants the voters to approve a 1 cent sales tax increase should it make it onto the November ballot.
Hong said his organization will oppose it unless it includes a sunset clause.
"At the end of the day, we don't trust what's happening at city hall," he said. "We're wiling to give folks a chance, potentially. "
"If they don't put that sunset clause in there, we're definitely going to be out there opposing this," added Hong.
Meanwhile, the mayor's proposed budget was unveiled just days after a state audit revealed San Diego city officials have spent millions of dollars over three years to combat homelessness, yet failed to report exactly where each dollar went. The report stated its unclear how successful any of the programs are.
CBS 8 asked Gloria to respond to the audit's findings, in light of his proposal to increase funding for homelessness in the next fiscal year's budget.
He said the city takes some exception to the comments that were made in the audit.
"There is no question our homeless efforts are getting thousands of people off the street every single year. Period. Hard stop," said Gloria.
"The challenge is the housing costs are rising so rapidly, so much, for every ten people we get off the street roughly 13 to 16 become homeless. That is the challenge that San Diegans see and are frustrated by, including myself," he added.
Hong said his organization is spending a lot of energy trying to figure out exactly where all of the money is going regarding homelessness.
"We need transparency, we need to see what's going on," said Hong. "We have the dollar numbers, but we cannot get data out of the Regional Taskforce on Homelessness and when we can't get data, we can't do analysis."
The San Diego City Council will weigh in on the mayor's budget in the coming weeks. The budget must be finalized in June.
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