Written by Joey Brasil
Mayor Todd Gloria is blaming budget issues on his predecessor, Kevin Faulconer, but isn’t presenting any solutions.
“The pandemic has exacerbated longstanding city budget problems the last administration did too little to address,” Gloria said.
Similarly to anywhere else in the country, city budget problems in San Diego have worsened due to the ongoing pandemic. Additionally, the city has had to spend increasing amounts of money on its pension program along with continuously aiming to improve the city’s infrastructure.
“There was a clear lack of desire from the previous administrations to address these complicated, challenging and incredibly important issues head on,” Gloria wrote in an email to VOSD. “The cost to fix crumbling infrastructure systems and low employee compensation isn’t the stuff of happy headlines even though both are important ways to improve the quality of life for everyday San Diegans.”
Instead of working to devise solutions and fix the issues faced by the city, Gloria is wasting time blaming former Mayor Faulconer, who did wonders for the city’s budget and other areas after taking the reigns from disgraced former Democrat Mayor Bob Filner.
In support of neighborhoods, Faulconer prioritized the budget for infrastructure which led to more than $3 million in improvements that benefitted neighborhoods throughout San Diego. On top of that, half of all new General Fund revenue growth went towards neighborhoods and infrastructure for every year he was in office.
It has been assumed by many San Diegans that Mayor Todd Gloria will attempt to increase taxes in order to alleviate the problems the city faces. However, he has not even presented that as a solution.
“We have a structural budget deficit coupled with enormous infrastructure needs with no identified funding sources but any attempts to rectify that must take into account the economic environment and financial priorities of the city,” Gloria said.
Photo via City of San Diego
