San Diego’s funding shortfall for infrastructure projects has climbed to a record $7.8 billion this winter, up nearly 20% compared to last year and more than 62% compared to two years ago. The shortfall — the gap between projected infrastructure needs over the next five years and the funding ava ilable for them — would be even larger if city officials calculated infrastructure needs beyond five years. A new 77-page infrastructure report released over the weekend says the gap also doesn’t include the costs of new seawalls and other projects San Diego is expected to need as climate change accelerates sea-level rise. The report says the city has $12.82 billion in projected infrastructure needs from fiscal year 2027, which begins in July, through fiscal year 2031. To address those needs, the city projects to have just over $5 billion. The gap was $6.5 billion last winter — $11.9 billion in needs versus $5.4 billion in funding — and $4.8 billion the winter before that. While the main drivers of gap’s growth are higher building and borrowing costs combined with the need to meet stricter state and federal regulations, city officials say San Diego is worse off than most other large cities. Much of San Diego’s infrastructure is overdue for replacement because it was built during the city’s population boom of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s and has outlasted its lifespan. The report says the city’s flood prevention infrastructure, called stormwater infrastructure, is crumbling badly and makes up the largest chunk of the $7.8 billion funding gap. The $5.1 billion projected gap in stormwater funding — $425 million in funding versus $5.5 billion in needs — accounts for nearly two thirds of the city’s overall infrastructure funding gap. City leaders discussed in 2022 and 2024 possible ballot measures to raise money for stormwater projects, particularly flood prevention and water quality projects. But such measures haven’t been discussed publicly since. The new report paints a grim picture. “The city’s stormwater infrastructure is largely past its useful life, resulting in system deterioration and failure,” the report says. “Age, combined with deferred maintenance due to historical underfunding of the storm drain system, poses a risk of flooding and catastrophic failure.” Since 2021, unexpected failures have required emergency repairs costing nearly $200 million — money that could have paid for repairs and upgrades to prevent future failures. Help for the infrastructure gap could come from a possible November ballot measure that would raise the city’s sales tax to pay for infrastructure projects — but that effort would need voter approval and could be delayed to 2028. The report excludes any projects that would be constructed after fiscal 2031 from the estimated funding gap, partly because it’s difficult to forecast available funding that far out. But the report identifies nearly $6 billion in infrastructure projects beyond fiscal 2031 projects that will need funding, including $900 million for new fire stations and other firefighting facilities. While most people think of streets and pipes and sidewalks as the city’s chief infrastructure needs, public safety facilities play a large role in the funding gap. During the next five years, the city is projected to need $222 million for new police facilities, including a new firearms range. It has no projected funding for those. For firefighting, the city is projected to need $376 million in new facilities and to have only $66 million, leaving a $310 million gap. For lifeguards, the city expects to need $82 million for towers and other facilities and to have only $44 million, for a $38 million gap. But the city is also badly underfunded for more traditional infrastructure. The projected funding gap is $678 million for street paving ($292 million in funding versus $970 million in needs), $252 million for sidewalks ($47 million in funding versus $299 million in needs) and $467 million for streetlights ($15 million in funding versus $482 million in needs). One piece of positive news: City officials say previous estimates of the infrastructure funding gap have underestimated how much grant funding the city typically gets for projects. For example, the 2020 version of the report estimated San Diego would secure $30.4 million in grants over the next five years. The actual amount ended up being over $200 million. City officials don’t like to include in their estimates uncertain money, and grants come with complex eligibility requirements that make the funding far from certain — especially as much as five years in advance. The report estimates $53.7 million in grant funding over the next five years — about $11 million a year — even though San Diego typically gets significantly more than that. The city secured $40.6 million in infrastructure grants in fiscal years 2025 and is slated to get $36.2 million in the ongoing fiscal year. But grant funding still isn’t expected to make much of a dent in the overall gap, because $40 million per year is a small amount compared with a $7.8 billion gap. The new report mentions public-private partnerships as something that could help close the gap. City officials last summer proposed a new policy that would make it easier for universities and other nonprofits to help the city tackle its growing backlog of infrastructure projects. The new policy would make it easier for UC San Diego to fund intersection upgrades near its La Jolla campus, for the San Diego Parks Foundation to make small upgrades in city parks and for other nonprofits to spruce up city facilities. When such offers come in now, city officials don’t know what to do or whom to ask for approval. The new policy would make it clear how such partnerships would work. San Diego is the only city in the region that has assessed all its infrastructure in the last few years, and the only city to estimate its infrastructure funding gap every winter — a practice that began 11 years ago. While the funding gap is daunting, city officials say they’d rather know where they stand than remain in the dark and kick the can down the road to future city leaders. Officials say that’s what happened for decades, creating the problem the city faces now. The city’s independent budget analyst is expected to conduct a full analysis of the new report before it goes to City Council next month. The council’s infrastructure committee is slated to have a preliminary discussion Thursday. ...read more read less