Downtown San Diego Sunset. (Photo: Dancestrokes/Shutterstock)
Signs of San Diego Budget Mismanagement Grow as Audits Find Millions in Uncollected Fees
$4 million in uncollected trash fees comes as residents face a huge trash pickup price hike
By Evan Symon, May 10, 2025 2:45 am
Budgetary problems in the city of San Diego have been seemingly endless since last year. In November, San Diego City Schools announced a $176 million deficit. In February, the city itself was $258 million in the red. Last month, it grew even worse when it was recalculated to show that they were over $300 million in debt for the upcoming fiscal year. And that’s not even getting into La Jolla currently making a bid to become their own city and taking away a significant amount of tax revenue if they do.
Mayor Todd Gloria and other city officials have scrambled to do anything to fix the problem. They managed to save $13 million by consolidating office space. The next budget, due in a few months, is expected to have a lot of cuts to make up for it, including to police, homeless services, libraries, and other essential services. City lawmakers and employees, however, aren’t getting pay cuts. While other big cities, like Los Angeles and San Francisco, have a lot of sacrifices to cut back on their budgets, including SF Mayor Daniel Lurie not taking a salary and LA Mayor Karen Bass agreeing to a reduced salary, San Diego isn’t taking those needed drastic steps. And Councilmembers are getting anxious.
“I’m concerned the that revenue projections in the mayor’s proposed budget may be fairly rosy” and that a big change between April and May throws the entire process out of whack,” said Councilman Kent Lee. “Council needs to understand what the next potential layers of impact you are anticipating are, because those are going to be part of the discussion that we have to have. I think if we just spent our time discussing what’s in this proposal, we’re likely going to miss a chunk of things that you’ll bring forward in May.”
Problem’s in America’s Finest City
Others have vowed to fight tooth and nail against some cuts.
“It’s unacceptable to me that libraries and rec centers in communities that have been underinvested in for decades are getting the same cuts as in some of our most affluent communities in the city,” added Councilman Sean Elo-Rivera. “The across-the-board cuts are simply not something that I will be able to accept, and that’s going to be a hard line for me.”
The big problem has been that, with all the talks of budget cuts, San Diego really didn’t check the books as hard as they thought. One audit this week found that the city was not collecting millions each year in trash fees from private haulers. In the past fiscal year, San Diego lost out on $4 million, and since 2010, about $25 million in total. Compared to a $300 million deficit, it’s not all that big, but it would still nonetheless make a dent and perhaps save some needed police jobs or help keep some more homeless services up and running. And the trash audit is particularly startling considering that residents are seeing trash collection fees skyrocket to help the system keep going.
And that was just one audit of one department.
Like many cities in California, San Diego is in a budget crunch that needs to be solved pretty quickly. And unlike neighboring L.A., which can at least partially blame their high deficit on the January wildfires, San Diego has no real outside blame. This is all on them. And so far, they are not going the distance other Californian cities are going with leaders taking pay cuts to help reduce salary overhead or, say, making sure that all uncollected fees are being paid.
America’s Finest City has a long road ahead if they truly want to live up to their city nickname.
RELATED ARTICLES
-
February 12, 2025 -
December 7, 2021
For several reasons, I had already begun to wonder if California Mission towns are the right choice for (D) style leadership.
If names have any intrinsic meaning at all, then elected officers should conduct business at a comensrate moral standard. At least to a level which your town name implies, and honest citizens expect.
The people voted for Commucrats, and then expected the city to be well run? Oh, please.
What should be done is all of the fraud and waste eliminated, which I would guess is 75% of the budget. Instead, Communists increase taxes and fees, and the cycle begins again.
Cut the Bike Lane expenditures!!! No one uses them. And now because of your poor mgmt you’ve decided to punish us…double taxing homeowners for trash pick up.
And the 30 million to glamify Hillcrest!! The homeless will appreciate that 30 million refresh for sure!!
Calling it America’s Finest City these days is a stretch. Crime, Drugs, Homeless piled up everywhere and just plain filthy dirty. It’s not all that “fine” anymore.
The city needs a mayor the has a degree in engineering and has been in the trenches. knows about budgets. maybe a retired Cal Trans engineer. Money is being wasted on bike lanes when critical infrastructure is failed to be maintained. Bridges, Dams, Culverts, Drainage and a myriad of other things that aren’t even being thought of. How about an audit to see where the money has gone instead of raising parking meters on poor people just trying to park. Cut their salary for doing a poor job!
Anyone else would be fired.
Mayor Gloria recently stated clearing brush from flood channels and urban/wildland interface is too expensive. Why? Turns out every section of channel or land needs an environmental study and multiple permits. How about exempting these lands from the bureaucracy. Oh that would mean laying off bureaucrats. Can’t have that! Better to let 5 police detective positions go unfilled.
No one has mentioned anything about the $$ spent on illegals I’m sure that’s in the millions. They got to stay in resorts, got fed daily, clothing, etc. & all while our American homeless are still on the streets. The waste was also spent on those darn unused bike lanes, electric busses, etc. This calls for an audit & Starting from the Mayor all involved should be held accountable.
Millions of dirt poor people come here illegally with no job and the only homeless people you see appear to be Americans. You don’t see any illegal aliens starving. Why? They are obviously getting services paid for by us taxpayers offered by our politicians. The cost must be astronomical. The only reason for this has to be hopes to gain census numbers in Blue Democratic states to get electoral votes and steal the presidency in perpetuity.
It’s relatively inexpensive to just paint lanes and hang signs for bike lanes ,etc..
None of these cities have any real money for real infrastructure growth or repair , and as every day passes the problems get worse and the fixes farther away.
I believe they are all waiting until it’s so intolerably bad and then they will try and force/sell a mileage tax.
Even if they get another shot of cash, they will never be capable of fixing it anyway.
I fear this is going to critical mass sooner or later.
Never discussions regarding reducing this egregious taxpayer burden.
https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2025/03/14/san-diego-hit-with-533-million-pension-payment-an-unprecedented-sum-in-a-painful-budget-year/