San Diego’s current “Five-Year Financial Outlook” shows the dramatic financial crisis the city faces, predicting an incredible $180 million deficit next year. Bankruptcy has become a real possibility.
Mayor Sanders’ own task force says the city must drastically cut city staff, employee expenses and start outsourcing some city services, or else face bankruptcy. San Diego has a short-run budget crisis it has to solve, but it also has long-run fiscal management challenges that it must start fixing now, or these problems will only return in future budgets. The city can no longer afford inflated spending driven by special interest politics, budget gimmicks, borrowing, and unfunded mandates. To help San Diego turn these realities into action, Reason Foundation’s “Savings for San Diego” project will be providing a series of research reports and working with city officials and civic groups on:
- Strategic outsourcing of city services where it makes sense
- Selling unnecessary city-owned property and real assets
- Reforming city worker pensions policies
- Budgeting for results
- Improved transparency and accountability in the city budget