Written by Nicholas Vetrisek
A new city analysis shows that San Diego will have a significant budget deficit over the course of the next three years. And this is if the economy stays at the record high levels it is currently at now. In the event of a downturn or recession, the city would be in deep financial trouble.
Officials are stating that despite it being incredibly unusual for cities to have a major deficit with a strong economy, it’s being caused by relatively little economic growth in the face of drastically increasing government spending. This is not limited to San Diego, as San Diego is merely a symptom of Calinomics™: the idea that governments can spend beyond their means on meaningless garbage in order to buy votes while somehow not having it catch up to them.
First San Bernadino, next San Diego? While the economic health of a city should be one of the top priorities for any local government, it’s clearly not very high on the list for San Diego. In San Diego, the previously mentioned vote-buying techniques are far more important to Democratic officials. Things like pay raises for city workers and generous pensions may cost an arm and a leg, but they lock down a solid portion of the electorate and make it far easier for city politicians to keep their seats.
One of the most important rules of politics is an unwritten one: no one will ever vote to spend less. The results of this are clear according to the analysis, as San Diego is not projected to have a balanced budget until 2025. Even then, that’s assuming everything stays positive.
It presupposes that California continues to receive record revenues and Trumponomics remain in full swing. If anything were to happen to the economy such as a recession, an event incredibly likely given that America is already in the longest bull market in history, that 2025 figure could get pushed a lot further back and have devastating effects on San Diego.
The only thing that could prevent this scenario is severe budget cuts. Not just cuts as in only spending five percent more than last year as opposed to 10 percent, but cuts period. If the rule could somehow be broken, then and only then will San Diego have a fighting chance. Otherwise, San Diego is in for a rough decade.
