San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria wants to close all city library branches every Sunday and Monday, cut recreation center hours by more than 30 percent and eliminate all of the city’s 184 beach and bay fire rings. The mayor is also proposing a 10 percent cut to arts funding, paying the Humane Society mi llions less for animal enforcement and eliminating firefighting fast-response squads downtown and near Safari Park. Gloria announced those proposed cuts and several others Tuesday to help close a projected $258 million deficit in the city’s general fund budget for the new fiscal year that begins July 1. The cuts are part of a three-pronged approach the mayor announced late last year after city voters narrowly rejected a proposed one-cent sales tax increase that officials said would have generated $400 million a year. Two other prongs — delaying reserve contributions and boosting city revenues with new fees and higher parking meter rates — have already been announced by the mayor in recent weeks and months. But until Tuesday’s announcement, the third prong — how the mayor would make cuts to popular city services like libraries and recreation centers — had been the subject of much speculation. The proposed cuts add up to $112 million and come with a net reduction of 247 jobs. Some of the eliminated jobs are unfilled, but 160 of the city’s 11,000 workers would be laid off or transferred to other positions under the mayor’s plan. It 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 proposed budget prioritizes what the mayor calls “core” services: public safety, infrastructure, homelessness and efforts to boost housing production. Despite some targeted cuts, the fire department would get $24 million more than in the previous budget, and police would get a $29.3 million boost. Infrastructure spending would drop by $104 million from $950 million to $846 million. But that’s mostly because spending will decline on the Pure Water project — from $139 million to $35 million — as it nears completion. Spending on homelessness would drop from $138.5 million to $105.3 million, but the city’s contribution from its general fund would rise slightly from $68 million to $71.1 million. Overall spending on homelessness would drop, because the city expects to receive less money from the state and other sources. Cuts to homelessness resources would include closing the Rosecrans shelter and eliminating an outreach partnership with CalTrans. In an unusual move this year, Gloria is characterizing the spending plan as a “draft” budget instead of a “proposed” budget, contending there is so much economic uncertainty that his actual proposed budget will come on May 14 when better information is available. “This is intended to start a conversation,” he said. “It will likely shift substantially as we get additional economic data.” He said the budget he proposes each May — called the “May revise” — should be considered his actual proposed budget. It will incorporate reactions from residents, the City Council and the city’s independent budget analyst to the draft proposal released Tuesday. “We will get the public input and the council member input and the IBA’s review, and then we’ll put something together that is more reflective of where all parties are at,” Gloria said Monday. Gloria said he hopes San Diegans will view his proposal as less severe than expected, even though cuts are never popular. “Generally speaking, I’d like to believe that people will see this as not being as bad as they anticipated,” he said. “We’ve done our best first whack at it, but we’re open to hearing from folks how we can do even better.” The budget will likely face criticism from council members and some community leaders for its broad, across-the-board cuts to libraries and recreation centers citywide. Council members representing lower-income areas had lobbied for softer cuts in those neighborhoods and deeper cuts in wealthier areas. Gloria said his approach makes sense for operational reasons and that many people live in one neighborhood but work or go to school in another. “San Diegans don’t live their lives in just one neighborhood,” Gloria said. Under the mayor’s proposed budget, the city’s 37 library branches would be open Tuesday through Saturday each week and closed every Sunday and Monday. Every branch now has Monday hours, but only 14 have Sunday hours. There would also be cuts to the library’s homework assistance program. Those would be targeted, with the program spared at 10 branches in lower-income areas and eliminated at eight in higher-income neighborhoods. At the city’s 60 recreation centers, weekly hours would be slashed from either 60 or 65 down to 40. Each center would have 30 core hours and 10 flexible hours that would be scheduled based on neighborhood demand. Arts funding would be cut from $15.3 million to $13.8 million. The city’s contract with the Humane Society would shrink by $3.5 million. Eliminating the fast-response firefighting squads would save $1.5 million. And eliminating the fire rings would allow the city to have fewer workers overseeing and maintaining them. Other proposed cuts include closing some restrooms at city beaches and parks, eliminating security guards who close some parks at night and reducing code enforcement officers focused on zoning violations. The proposed budget also includes some new spending, including an additional lifeguard academy, the opening of multiple new parks and $26.7 million for traffic safety projects known as “vision zero.” The cuts amount to roughly one-third of the mayor’s efforts to close the projected deficit. Another key part of his strategy is delaying $64 million in scheduled contributions to city reserves. The city’s general fund reserve would remain at about $208 million. “We are in a situation that reserves are intended for,” the mayor said. “Rather than draw from them, we are simply not contributing. It seems like a reasonable approach with the times we find ourselves in.” Another important piece is the addition of new fees and a parking revenue increase, which are projected to generate $61 million. The mayor’s budget anticipates fees to park in Balboa Park will begin during the new fiscal year. Other key sources are $74.1 million the city expects to save by establishing a fee for trash pickup at single-family homes, a service the city has long been providing at no charge. The budget also counts on $33.8 million from Measure C, a 2020 ballot measure that provides millions for homeless services to the city from higher hotel taxes. A court ruling in the city’s favor is expected this summer. On possible layoffs associated with the budget cuts, city officials said they are optimistic the number will be small. “With all the other vacancies across the organization, it’s highly likely most employees get moved from one position to another but remain within the organization,” said Matt Vespi, the city’s chief financial officer. “The number of truly impacted employees we expect will be pretty low, but we don’t want to get ahead of the process and create false hope or more concern than needs to be created,” Vespi said. If there is an economic recession, the expected reductions in revenue — especially hotel tax and sales tax — would require deeper cuts, said Rolando Charvel, the city’s finance director. Gloria said he used fewer gimmicks in this year’s budget, such as using one-time sources like federal pandemic aid to cover ongoing expenses. He estimated that this budget would reduce the city’s structural deficit — the gap between ongoing revenue and ongoing expenses — from 8.4% last fiscal year to 2.1% this fiscal year. Another challenge the mayor faced in closing the projected deficit was pay raises most city employees are scheduled to get July 1. Those raises, which cost about $28 million in the coming fiscal year, are part of negotiated labor contracts. The city’s annual pension payment is also a record-high $533.2 million — $44 million higher than last year, and $35 million higher than the pension system’s actuary had projected last spring. The City Council is scheduled to review the budget during a week of public hearings May 5-9. The council is scheduled to vote on a finalized budget June 10. ...read more read less