Amid the city of San Diego’s $118 million deficit, Mayor Todd Gloria released his proposed budget for fiscal year 2026-27 on April 15. The budget totals $6.4 billion, an increase from last year’s $6.1 billion, and includes cuts to every department except police and fire. The city’s deadline to adopt a budget is June 9.
The budget draft prioritizes funding to “address quality of life issues, provide public safety, and support homelessness programs and services.” Gloria dedicates $821.7 million to capital improvement projects, which include $89.1 million for street repair, $59.9 million for traffic safety, and $52.5 million for stormwater infrastructure.
Gloria wrote about his priorities: “Even under severe fiscal pressure, this budget protects the services San Diegans have told us matter most. I hear from San Diegans every day about what matters most to them: safe neighborhoods, fixed roads, and a city government that shows up when they need it.”
The proposed budget also allocates $97.1 million in total funding to homeless programs and services such as shelters, safe parking, and outreach. This is a $4 million decrease from the current budget; Gloria stated that this funding will maintain current service levels.
Cuts are across the board; the budget decreases funding for personnel costs by 0.4%, or around $4 million, compared to fiscal year 2025-26. This includes major cuts to parks and libraries. Reductions to parks and recreation will affect management, administration, technicians, grounds maintenance, and rangers, and shorten restroom and recreation operating hours. Reductions to the library will primarily affect operating hours across the city and potentially completely cut the Office of Child and Youth Success.
Arts and culture are particularly impacted by this draft of the budget. Whereas the city will typically allocate around $10 million to fund grants and nonprofits, this budget reduces total funding for the arts from last year’s $13.8 million to $2 million. The remaining sum will support the Cultural Affairs department, which oversees public art installations.
This funding supports a significant number of cultural and artistic institutions across San Diego, including San Diego Pride, the La Jolla Historical Society, and The Old Globe theater. Many San Diego-based artists expressed their concerns about the cuts and quickly mobilized to fight them. A Tuesday afternoon Zoom meeting on the subject hosted more than 100 local artist attendees.
The San Diego Fire-Rescue Department would receive a $27 million increase in funds, though it is facing cuts to bomb squad staffing and SDFD officers. The budget also increases the police department budget by $14 million to be spent on overtime and training for police officers and equipment upgrades.
In fiscal year 2025-26, the structural deficit was $318 million. Gloria wrote that the current budget repaid $270 million of the total structural deficit, or around 85%, through “real, structural changes,” such as consolidating city departments and physically reorganizing city employees.
Early projections of the deficit amounted to $88 million, but have now worsened to $118 million. Gloria cited “lower transient occupancy tax revenue, increased pension costs, and weaker departmental revenue,” as well as “inflationary pressures and slowing growth in key revenues,” as the reason for the deficit’s increase.
Gloria acknowledged the harms of the cuts, many of which will reduce services provided by these departments for the second year in a row.
“The budget includes a second year of major reductions, and those decisions will have real service level impacts across the City,” Gloria wrote. “Reductions include labor concessions, unclassified position reductions, reduced recreation center hours, reduced library hours, and other operational changes across departments.”
Gloria emphasized his priority of first addressing the structural deficit.
“These are painful choices, and they are not a reflection of diminished commitment to those services,” he said. “They are the result of a structural imbalance that requires the City to live within its means while protecting the functions that are most essential to safety, shelter, and basic quality of life.”
Gloria did not respond to a request for comment from The UCSD Guardian.
Correction 4/26: This article was corrected to fix a couple of style and grammar errors.
