Burdened by Budget Crisis, Gloria Delivers State of the City Address in Humble Surroundings

Mayor Todd Gloria delivered the State of the City address Wednesday as San Diego finds itself in the midst of an possible nine-figure budget shortfall.

The speech, held at City Hall, comes one week after the Office of the Independent Budget Analyst released its review of the mayor’s upcoming Five-Year Financial Outlook. In the coming year alone, San Diego faces a whopping $258 million deficit.

While the 2024 address took place at the renovated downtown Balboa Theatre, Gloria this year opted for more humble environs, in the council chambers at City Hall, to suit more austere times, a fact that the mayor mentioned himself.

Gloria began his nearly 30-minute address by offering brief condolences to Los Angeles, as communities there continue to battle deadly wildfires. He then quickly transitioned to acknowledge his own city’s substantial looming deficit.

“The task ahead, as I believe you – the voters – have directed us, is to right-size our city  budget – not just for this year, but for the long-term,” Gloria said, an apparent reference to the failure of Measure E in November. “It means matching up our resources with our priorities and making hard choices, including reducing or eliminating some city services.”

While he didn’t specify which services would be scaled down, Gloria said initial efforts include a halt on hiring all non-essential positions and non-essential spending.

According to the IBA report, even if proposed budget mitigations were implemented, the city would still face a $60 million shortfall that would need to be addressed by significant cuts.

The majority of Gloria’s address was focused on developing more affordable housing and tackling homelessness, goals he’s embraced throughout his tenure as mayor.

As he acknowledged the rising cost of home ownership in San Diego, though Gloria said he remained confident in the city’s existing efforts to increase development of affordable housing by speeding up the permit process.

Additionally, he stated his intention, in the coming months, to introduce incentives for the construction of new starter homes.

On homelessness, Gloria was clear in his defense of city taxpayers. He argued that San Diego cannot take on the region’s homelessness crisis alone. He stated his desire to shift some of the burdens to the state and San Diego County.

In last year’s address, he set forth the ambitious goal of adding 1,000 more shelter beds, a project which never came to fruition. Rather, the city saw a loss of several hundred shelter beds by the end of 2024.

However, while highlighting the crisis of behavioral healthcare, Gloria said that his city does its part to prepare for state-funded mental health services, but the county has not delivered.

“My fellow San Diegans: it is my hope that anytime you see a person on the street suffering  from extreme mental illness or addiction, that you think of the County of San Diego and ask  them – when will they step up to provide the services needed to end this crisis?” Gloria said.

This sentiment, seeking collaboration to shoulder the costs of homelessness, was supported by City Council President Joe LaCava.

“We cannot do this work alone,” LaCava said in a statement issued following the mayor’s address. “The County, the other 17 cities, the state, and our federal government must step up to share the work of homelessness, behavioral health, housing and more.”

But Council member Sean Elo-Rivera, a former council president, said he is unhappy that Gloria didn’t focus more on the burdens borne by city residents and workers – or consider tourism as a possible means for raising revenue.

“San Diego families are struggling to afford rent, childcare and groceries, he said. “Meanwhile, our city workers are being asked to carry the weight of a budget crisis they didn’t cause. And tourists — who enjoy the beauty of our beaches, parks and neighborhoods — still aren’t being asked to pay their fair share.”

While Gloria emphasized his ultimate goal of addressing the city’s structural budget deficit, he said he is not looking to do so by slashing the budget. Instead, he wants other agencies to help foot the bill on regional issues.

“Every dollar this city spends responding to the lack of action from other cities, the county,  or the state is a dollar not being spent on fixing our roads, upgrading our stormwater systems or supporting public safety,” the mayor said.