Good morning from Hillcrest.
- We’ll lead off the day with my piece that questions the assumptions behind the Chargers’ estimate on the money city taxpayers lose if the team continues to play at Qualcomm Stadium in Mission Valley for the remaining 11 years of its lease. The team says taxpayers are out $340.5 million, but our estimate shows that total could be as much as $145 million overstated.
- This number is important because it represents a primary argument in the team’s search for a new publicly subsidized downtown stadium — that taxpayers would make a better investment by spending on a new stadium than subsidizing the operations of an old one.
- Municipal bankruptcy, the subject of a recent explainer piece we did, was featured in the Wall Street Journal this week (subscription required). The story focuses on cities that are pondering or have addressed bankruptcy recently, including the bankrupt Bay Area city of Vallejo and Harrisburg, the capital of Pennsylvania. San Diego makes an appearance near the story’s end:
In San Diego, political leaders have faced outside pressure to file for Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection as a way to get around benefits packages for public workers. San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders has publicly dismissed the idea.
- Some quick hits to wrap up today’s Agenda as I have to run off to a meeting. San Diego County officials questioned the qualifications of an outside auditor who issued a scathing report about the county tax collector’s office after the auditor completed his work, the U-T reports in on-going coverage. The ruling against the city of San Diego’s campaign finance laws raises huge questions about how election spending could and should go forward, the U-T editorializes. And five candidates hoping to fill an open City Council seat in District 6 debated yesterday.
— LIAM DILLON