Gloria releases $5.12 billion budget with lens on maintaining city services

On Friday Mayor Todd Gloria released his proposed Fiscal Year 2024 $5.12 billion budget, focused on improving infrastructure as well as new expenditures regarding homelessness, street paving and public safety.

Gloria's "Getting It Done" budget is an increase of $120 million over 2022's "Ready to Rebuild" budget, which the mayor said was intended to maintain city service levels and expand programs in certain city needs.

"We built a strong foundation for improving the infrastructure and overall quality of core city services in my administration's first two budgets," Gloria said. "This coming fiscal year, we're focused on efficiently and effectively delivering on those investments and making substantial progress toward ensuring that, operationally, we're the well-functioning city government that San Diegans expect and deserve."

Among the proposed budget's additions is $24.5 million to maintain and operate the nearly 70% growth in shelter bed capacity under Gloria's administration. Along with this, the budget calls for an additional $5 million to further expand shelter capacity in the coming year, including funding for a Safe Sleeping program; $2.3 million for rental assistance for San Diegans who are at risk of losing their housing; and $1.4 million in funding to support new positions and vehicles to remove waste from the public right-of-way in areas most heavily affected by encampments.

Gloria's budget also allocates nearly $140 million to street repair/resurfacing, expected to enable the city to resurface 157 miles of streets, including both full overlay and slurry seal.

According to the mayor's office, another $38.6 million is tabbed for parks, playgrounds and green spaces.

Last among the major proposed additions is $2.2 million to fund 10 Police Investigative Service Officers and 11 other civilian positions to "support administrative functions more cost-effectively for the Police Department, freeing up sworn police officers for patrol and responding to calls for service," a statement from Gloria's office reads.

"This budget will allow the San Diego Police Department to hire more professional staff to augment staffing, bring back Smart Streetlights to support investigations and address the proliferation of illegal drugs in our communities," said Police Chief David Nisleit. "SDPD is grateful for the investment by Mayor Gloria and the City Council to assist us in keeping San Diego one of the safest big cities."

Gloria said he and his administration crafted the budget to avoid creating departments and programs which would need to be cut if an expected revenue dip arrives in the next several years. It has also been developed with a view toward equity and the intention of providing similar services to the city's many neighborhoods.

"Budgets are statements of priorities and determine allocations of resources, making the budget-development process a great opportunity to evaluate how we might be favoring one neighborhood or group of people over another in ways that contribute to disparities," said Kim Desmond, the city's chief race and equity officer. "That work is happening now. It will take many cycles to eliminate disparities that in some cases have grown over generations, but this budget is a great first step..."

Gloria will formally present the budget to the City Council on April 24, followed by weeks of department-level public hearings and the release of a revised budget on May 18. San Diegans are encouraged to provide feedback.

"As chair of the Budget and Government Efficiency Committee, my commitment is to provide transparency and to ensure the public is fully aware and educated about the city's budget," said Council President pro Tem Montgomery Steppe. "We want to hear from you as you play an important role in the process of ensuring the adopted budget represents the diversity of our city and is representative of the needs of our vulnerable and underrepresented communities."