San Diego is slashing funding for arts, libraries and recreation centers, as it stares down a $146 million budget deficit that’s forcing unpopular spending cuts.

It’s not alone. Other California cities face similar gaps, including Los Angeles with a $200 deficit, Sacramento with a $66 million shortfall and San Francisco facing a $643 million gap over the next two years.

The cities’ financial woes echo the state’s projected deficit of $3 to $18 billion, as inflation collides with cuts in federal aid. In San Diego, lackluster growth of local sales, property and hotel taxes create an additional squeeze.

“What we’ve been seeing over the last several years after COVID and inflationary pressures, is that it has affected prices across the nation, across the world,” said Rolando Charvel, chief financial officer for San Diego. “Costs are going up faster than our revenue growth”

San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria released a $6.4 billion proposed budget last week, revealing a barebones spending plan that shored up public safety, homelessness and road repair and traffic safety, but slashed other services.

“It makes the tough decisions now—including targeted reductions to staffing and support functions—to protect the services San Diegans rely on and keep the city on solid footing,” Gloria said in a statement.

That infuriated arts and culture advocates, who protested that the mayor’s plan would eliminate nearly all arts funding and curtail hours and programs at libraries, parks and recreation centers.

“When we cut the things that make San Diego or any city great, the things that bring us together as a community… I shudder to think what we end up with,” said Patrick Stewart, CEO of the San Diego Library Foundation.

San Diego City Council members were pleased to see strong public safety funding, but aren’t comfortable with dramatic cuts to the arts, council President Joe LaCava said. “People will pull out their pencils and start scouring the mayor’s budget to see if we can tackle that going forward.”

Adriana Heldiz

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CalMatters

How California cities are falling short

Amid statewide budget woes, San Diego offers a case study in how city spending can fall into the red.

“We’re being hit both on the cost side and the revenue side,” said Alan Gin, an associate professor of economics at the University of San Diego.

Costs are up for everything from car parts for city vehicle fleets to asphalt for street repair, making maintenance and operations pricier, Charvel said. Meanwhile, inflation suppresses consumer spending, tourism and home sales — all key sources of local taxes.

That’s partly due to forces outside local control.

“Federal immigration policy, tariffs and other dimensions of trade policies, are putting cost pressures on deliverers of services in all sectors, and state and local governments are no stranger to that,” said Jeffrey Clemens, an economist with UC San Diego.

A November report by the National League of Cities stated that most cities were bracing for belt-tightening, as they contend with rising costs, infrastructure demands, tariffs and other challenges.

Its survey of local governments found that 55% of cities found it harder to balance their budgets in 2025 than the previous year, compared to just 11% in 2022.

Pandemic aid is expiring as cities confront new budget crunches, said Ben Triffo, a legislative advocate for the League of California Cities.

“I think we’re seeing the slow shift from recovery to restraint,” he said. “Our cities’ revenues are flattening; they’re not keeping pace with the costs.”

In San Diego, property tax growth is expected to slow this year, as the number of home sales drops, Charvel said. The region has a deep housing shortage, and limited inventory with high mortgage rates means fewer homes are selling.

Federal cuts to housing assistance, and inconsistent state funding for homelessness response, have also cost San Diego, LaCava said.

Ongoing inflation, fueled by tariffs and rising gas prices from the war in Iran, is suppressing consumer spending. In San Diego, sales taxes are projected to grow by half the rate they did last year, Charvel said. In 2024, San Diego voters rejected a one cent sales tax by less than one percentage point.

“Consumers are feeling squeamish in the general sense, in particular in the housing market, and that’s creating statewide and national pressures on property tax and sales tax revenues,” Clemens said.

San Diego’s tourism industry is also bracing for a slump; hotel taxes will grow just 1.5 percent this year, down from 6 percent last year, as both group travel and international visitation decline, Charvel said.

“For example, Canadians are boycotting the U.S.,” Gin said. “We’re affected by that in San Diego, because we’re a big tourism destination.”

As revenue stagnates, costs are piling up. The mayor’s office estimates it would cost $118 to $120 million more to run city services at the same level as last year, plus another $26 million for legal mandates, settlements, FEMA accreditation and other fixed expenses. San Diego has a backlog of maintenance for sidewalks and other facilities, and has to meet state mandates to upgrade its stormwater system, Charvel said.

Some critics say San Diego’s spending priorities are misplaced, pointing to bloated middle management and inadequate infrastructure investment. A report released this month by the San Diego Taxpayers Association stated that the city’s workforce has increased about four times faster than its population growth over the last 15 years.

During that period, middle-management positions grew 461%, from 70 to 393, the report stated. San Diego officials pushed back, stating that many of those positions were funded by specific grants, and some had since been reduced.

Other big California cities are also in dire straits. San Francisco’s government spending has far outpaced local tax growth, and the city struggles with federal cuts to food stamps and Medicaid.

Last week San Francisco workers protested the first wave of layoff notices after Mayor Daniel Lurie’s budget office warned departments to prepare to eliminate 500 jobs. The city also plans to cut disability assistance, environmental programs and legal aid.

In February, Los Angeles City Controller Kenneth Mejia wrote that the city is projected to overspend by $200 million, as it contends with last year’s Palisades and Eaton wildfires, “tariff levels unseen since the Great Depression, and aggressive federal immigration enforcement.” In a separate report on the last fiscal year Mejia warned that overspending, rising liability costs and stagnant revenue has led to “crumbling infrastructure and deteriorating services.”

Who bears the brunt of cuts?

As cities try to close their budget gaps, public officials and advocates should think hard about who will fall through the cracks, Clemens said.

“We should be worried that when cuts are being considered, the cuts will be to things that don’t have voices among well-organized stakeholder groups, that are the easiest, from a political perspective, to pull back on,” he said.

San Diego plans to close its budget hole by eliminating 101 jobs, placing employees on furlough for one week per year, and making steep cuts to selected departments.

San Diego’s 37 library branches will have to trim $2.5 million in hours of service, Stewart said, along with programming, books and materials. The city is also ending a matching grant fund that helped libraries drum up private donations. The city council will decide when and where to limit library hours.

The deepest cut was the near elimination of arts funding. The mayor’s budget proposes to zero out an $11.8 million arts and culture grant program, leaving just $2 million in a separate account.

“The mayor is proposing decimating a long-standing, critical source of revenue for what is now nearly 200 organizations across San Diego,” said Jessica Hanson York, executive director of the Mingei Museum and president of the Balboa Park Cultural Partnership, which represents the museums at the city’s historic cultural center.

Many of those provide free events, performances and education programs, she said. In what York called a “double punch,” San Diego imposed controversial parking fees at Balboa Park earlier this year. Since then museum directors have reported a drop in museum visitation, while parking fees are bringing in less money than originally planned.

York questioned whether the $11.8 million savings would provide meaningful relief to the city’s multi-billion dollar budget, but said collateral damage could ripple out to other sectors and dampen spending on entertainment and tourism.

“When you cut quality of life services you absolutely undermine future economic opportunities, revenue, development and investment opportunities,” Stewart said.

At a packed hearing earlier this week, hundreds of residents spoke against gutting the arts program, and the city council plans to hold additional public hearings to refine the city’s spending plan. LaCava hopes to soften the blow of the deepest cuts but acknowledged there will be stark choices.

“Nobody is going to be happy with the budget as it’s going to be adopted in June,” he said. “My job as council president is to make it an open and transparent process. I hope at the end people will feel they had a fair chance to make their case.”

Alaskans take care of each other. It’s part of what defines life here. People look out for their neighbors, step up in hard moments and take pride in contributing to something bigger than themselves.

That same spirit has long defined Alaska’s labor community. Unions helped build this state and continue to keep it running today, grounded in hard work, fairness and a shared commitment to the communities that make up the Last Frontier.

We know this firsthand as members of the American Federation of Government Employees, the union representing federal workers, and as former public servants at the Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Veterans Affairs.

The work of the EPA and VA may look different day to day, but it is rooted in the same purpose: taking care of Alaska communities. At the VA, that means providing care, support and dignity to those who served our country. At the EPA, it means protecting the fundamentals that keep people healthy, like clean air and safe drinking water, and ensuring an environment where Alaskans can thrive. Together, that is what care for Alaska looks like.

But right now, decisions coming out of Washington are making it harder — and in some cases impossible — for Alaska’s federal workers to do their jobs. And it’s Alaska communities who are paying the price.

The workers being targeted aren’t faceless bureaucrats. They are your neighbors. They live and work in the communities they protect. They are the nurse helping a veteran manage chronic pain, the technician ensuring a rural water system is safe to drink from, the scientist monitoring pollution that could threaten our fish stocks. We’re speaking out on their behalf because many of them simply cannot, out of fear of discipline.

In Alaska, federal workers are especially essential. We have the highest percentage of veterans in the country, and our communities are deeply connected to the health of our land and water. When the federal workforce is dismantled, the consequences are immediate and severe. And we are already beginning to see what happens when they are weakened.

The EPA has canceled roughly $280 million in grants that were funding water infrastructure, energy and resilience projects across Alaska. With funding gone, many of these projects that keep communities and the local economy healthy are now delayed or abandoned altogether.

That doesn’t just put public health at risk. It also costs good jobs that Alaska workers rely on. Local engineers, construction workers and skilled tradespeople — many of them union members — depend on this work to put food on the table. When funding disappears, so do job opportunities and the paychecks that come with them.

At the same time, the VA in Alaska is facing staffing shortages and hiring freezes, with over 20% of staff lost in 2025. Fewer providers mean longer wait times, delayed care and gaps in services that veterans rely on.

Across both agencies, we are seeing a pattern: workforce cuts, funding reductions and political decisions that undermine the ability of public servants to do their jobs. As we’ve seen time and again, weakening this workforce is not just an attack on federal employees; it is a direct threat to Alaska’s public health and safety.

Alaskans expect and deserve better from our elected leaders. We expect our representatives in Washington to stand up for our state’s interests and reflect its values and what it means to take care of one another — not just in words, but in action.

Sen. Dan Sullivan and Rep. Nick Begich have instead stood on the sidelines as the funding we need is taken away and the federal workforce we rely on is hollowed out.

We have seen zero urgency to stand up for Alaska’s federal workforce who keep our water safe, care for our veterans and support our communities. With midterm elections approaching, Alaska voters should question if we have leadership that actually cares.

This isn’t about partisan politics. It’s about priorities. Our representatives should be leaders willing to stand up for the people who make Alaska work. Sen. Sullivan and Rep. Begich have failed to be leaders and instead have chosen to stand by while critical services are hollowed out and communities are left behind.

Alaska deserves leadership that will not sit quietly while decisions in Washington put our communities at risk. It deserves leaders who understand that investing in federal workers is not optional but essential.

Because in Alaska, taking care of each other isn’t a slogan. It’s a responsibility. And it’s one we all share.

Declan Farr and David Traver are both American Federation of Government Employees members who have served Alaska through their work at the Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Veterans Affairs.

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The Navy and the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) have dropped their initial opposition to disinterring the graves of battleship Arizona crew members buried more than 80 years ago as unknowns for possible identification and return to their families.

In a late Thursday release, DPAA announced that the Operation 85 advocacy group led by family member Kevin Kline had met the 60% threshold of DNA Family Reference Samples for the number of crew members thought to be buried in the commingled graves at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, known as the “Punchbowl.”

Although DPAA initially opposed the USS Arizona (BB-39) Unknown Identification Project, DPAA extended “its sincere appreciation” to Kline, grandnephew of Arizona crew member Gunner’s Mate 2nd Class Robert Edwin Kline, “and the ‘Operation 85’ team for their devoted efforts over the past three years to locate and connect enough USS Arizona families to help reach this important milestone.”

Last November, Operation 85 announced that they had reached the required 60% threshold for the Arizona, meaning 643 families. However, it has awaited DPAA confirmation since then.

In a phone interview with Military Times Thursday, Kline, who runs a real estate company in Fairfax County, Virginia, with his wife, Elizabeth, said the threshold agreement was a long time coming. He became obsessed with the possibility of identifying the unknowns after attending a DPAA update to the families in Norfolk, Virginia, three years ago.

But he had to go up against a March 2022 report to Congress regarding the cost to identify those buried as unknowns.

“Identifying the Sailors and Marines buried in the [Punchbowl] will cost the Navy and the Marine Corps casualty program offices approximately $2,700,000 for just their portion of the larger effort,” the Navy report said.

While the Navy Department, DPAA and other agencies “agree that the identification of the 85 Unknowns associated with USS ARIZONA and buried at [the Punchbowl] is feasible, it will require significant resources and an inordinate amount of time,” the Navy report said.

In addition, “Pursuing this effort will give false hope to the vast majority of USS Arizona families that their loved one may be identified,” the Navy report said.

However, in the effort to track down families and get their permission for DNA samples, “we turned a hard ‘No’ to a ‘Yes,’ Kline said.”

“It’s wonderful and we’re very excited to have hit this milestone” that will allow exhumations to begin,” Kline said. “But I feel like the work is not done yet, we still have new families to find,” he said. “But it’s much easier now knowing that the DPAA and everybody else is on board and I’m not just a rogue family member doing this alone anymore.”

Kline said that he and other family members were surprised to learn that there were crew members — including his great uncle, Gunners Mate 2nd Class Robert Edwin Kline, who died aboard the Arizona at age 22 — who were not entombed in the Arizona when it was sunk on Dec. 7, 1941.

His great uncle and others may have been blown clear of the ship by the force of the eight bombs that hit the Arizona from Japanese attack planes, Kline said, or by the huge explosion of the Arizona’s ammunition compartment.

The battleship suffered more loss of life than any American ship during the attack, its 1,177 dead comprising nearly half the 2,403 killed at Pearl Harbor.

Of the ship’s dead, 277 of its sailors and Marines are buried in Honolulu’s National Memorial of the Pacific. The identity of at least 85 of those men remain unknown to this day.

Kline’s great uncle and others could be among the remains of those recovered by Navy divers after the war before the mission was deemed too dangerous.

“Growing up in our family — we knew our uncle was never found [because] he was in the ship. That’s where everybody always thought where he was,” Kline said.

The hull of the 608-foot Pennsylvania class battleship Arizona now rests at the bottom of Pearl Harbor as the final resting place for more than 900 of the ship’s 1,177 crewmen who were killed on Dec. 7, 1941.

Above the hull, without ever touching it, is the gracefully stunning Arizona Memorial, officially known as the Pearl Harbor National Memorial, managed by the National Park Service.

The sloping roof of the memorial’s design, crafted by Austrian-American architect Alfred Preis, was intended to convey the profound symbolism of war and remembrance. The roof “sags in the center but stands strong and vigorous at the ends, expressing initial defeat and ultimate victory” in World War II, Preis said after the 1962 dedication of the memorial.