Mayor Todd Gloria’s got a rough year ahead. As he pointed out in his recent State of the City address, the budget he inherited is in trouble. The pandemic is a big part of the trouble coming in the next fiscal year. But Gloria says the last administration is also to blame for the current problems.
For this fiscal year ending in June, there’s a projected $85 million deficit. Next year, it’s expected to be about $154 million. Gloria called it a “structural budget deficit,” meaning the city is currently designed to spend more money than it takes in.
On the podcast this week, VOSD hosts Scott Lewis, Andrew Keatts and Sara Libby bask in the nerdy political glory that is municipal finance. Lewis, Keatts and Libby pin down what’s going on with the city’s books — especially on hiring under Faulconer and infrastructure mandates the city must soon comply with.
Faulconer Is in
The head of that previous administration Gloria was making a dig at, former Mayor Kevin Faulconer, made it totally, fully official: He’s running for governor.
Faulconer announced this week that he’s challenging Gov. Gavin Newsom, and zeroed in on schools as one of the big issues that will frame the race. Specifically, getting schools back open. We got into that on last week’s podcast, too, and how vaccines may factor in.
Another San Diego lawmaker, Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, is also tackling pandemic education. Libby spoke with Gonzalez this week about her bill that aims to help kids who’ve fallen behind during the pandemic.