‘Hands off our parks,' local leaders tell mayor, San Diego City Council

Local leaders and community groups on Tuesday demanded that Mayor Todd Gloria and the San Diego City Council reject proposed budget cuts that would slash parks, libraries, recreation centers and more.

The mayor’s  "draft" city budget for Fiscal Year 2026 includes $157 million in new revenue, partly composed of increased fees, as well as net increases for both the San Diego Police Department and Fire-Rescue Department, $29.3 million for the former and $24 million for the latter.

However, it also includes steep cuts, among them:

• The closure of all libraries on Sundays and Mondays, and a reduction of the library tutoring program from 18 to 10 libraries
• The reduction of all recreation center hours from 60 hours per week to 40 hours per week and the closure of select restrooms in city parks on a seasonal basis

At a rally Tuesday morning in City Heights, representatives from several community groups spoke about the need to protect these city services, saying they’re “not luxuries,” rather, “essential tools that help break the cycles of poverty, violence and isolation.”

They also asked the mayor and city council to consider the city’s Climate Equity Index when deciding which programs to cut and where, rather than making across-the-board cuts that they say disproportionately harm communities like theirs, which have been historically underfunded.

“There is no doubt that we are in a tough budget situation,” said City Councilmember Sean Elo-Rivera, who represents City Heights. “No one is disputing that. What we are fighting back against is the idea that all communities are starting from the same place and are in the same position to absorb the cuts that are being proposed.  They’re simply not.”

San Diego is facing a $258 million budget deficit. Gloria proposed a bushel of ways to address that, including increasing parking fees, charging for things which have long been free or cheap for city residents and cutting down library and recreation center hours and animal services.

"What we are putting forward at this time is a balanced, draft budget grounded in our economic reality," Gloria said when the draft budget was released in April. "It will continue to keep our neighborhoods safe, remains focused on reducing homelessness and fixing our infrastructure, and largely protects core city services that our residents count on.

"With the economic data we have now, we've made strategic decisions to minimize service-level reductions, avoid mass layoffs of the workers who keep our city operating, and invest in what matters most to San Diegans," the mayor added.

In December, Gloria announced that San Diego was facing a staggering budget deficit in the next fiscal year "amid declining growth in property, hotel room and sales taxes," a statement from his office read.

That deficit then continued to grow because of a decrease in sales-tax revenue, lower-than-anticipated franchise fees from San Diego Gas & Electric and an increase in employee pension costs.

In November's election, voters declined the San Diego Transaction and Use Tax, which would have increased the tax on transactions in the city by 1%, bringing the total sales tax to 8.75%. The current rate of 7.75% leaves the city tied for the fourth-lowest of the state's 482 municipalities and lower than nine of the county's 18 cities, according to the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration.

The additional $400 million that would have been raised by the proposal was a key emphasis of the measure's proponents, but the other side of that issue -- the cuts that would need to be made if it were not passed -- was less frequently referenced.

The draft budget included a "rightsizing" of fees, such as doubled parking meter rates, increased parking citation penalties and increase of various fees for services across the city. Gloria is also relying on a new fee to collect solid waste, which will be decided in June by the City Council, and on an increase to the city's hotel tax.

That latter tax, Measure C, was approved by a simple majority of San Diego voters in 2020, but it needed two-thirds of the vote to pass. San Diego decided the two-thirds rule was unfair and has moved forward with the intent to collect the tax beginning May 1, but the issue remains tied up in court.

Gloria's budget includes net increases for both the San Diego Police Department and Fire-Rescue Department, $29.3 million for the former and $24 million for the latter.

Additionally, the budget includes a total investment in homelessness services of $105.3 million, with $71.1 million coming from the General Fund, $25.7 million from the state's Homeless Housing Assistance and Prevention program, and $8.5 million in other grants.

Gloria proposed cutting 393 positions -- 160 of which are currently filled -- and transferring many of these employees to other departments. The draft budget proposes $175.9 million in reductions across all city departments.

The mayor will release his revised, official budget proposal on Thursday.