Consultants Option Proposed For San Diego County Budget Shortfall

SAN DIEGO, CA — San Diego County supervisors later this month will consider hiring consultants to look at options for easing a projected budget deficit for the new fiscal year.

Vice Chair Terra Lawson-Remer proposed hiring consultants with experience in areas such as public opinion research and ballot measure planning.

According to the recommendation on the Tuesday agenda, a consultant team "should have a proven track record in San Diego County," in terms of working with public agencies, non-governmental organizations and local governments on similar projects.

Possible options for increasing revenue are a sales, transaction and use, or documentary transfer tax, or a stormwater district.

As part of the proposal, the chief administrative officer would present the consultant's initial report and recommendations by Aug. 26. The agenda item was on the Tuesday board meeting, but was continued until Feb. 25.

Last December, the Board of Supervisors learned that county finances may be in for a difficult few years, in part because of changing revenue streams and federal government policy.

"To put it bluntly, the picture is not rosy," Chief Financial Officer Joan Bracci told the board during that meeting last year. "We do not have the funding to respond to all of the funding requests that we are seeing from groups and departments" for fiscal year 2025-26.

She said the county is "seeing a one-time funding gap of $138.5 million, which grows to $321.8 million by fiscal year 2029-30."

Bracci also told supervisors that after a period of robust growth, the county is "starting to see a slow-down in sales tax revenue."

In a recent Axios article, Lawson-Remer said the Trump administration's proposed federal budget changes and possible effects from tariffs were factors.

"We're in this environment where it was already difficult, but we were managing that difficulty," she said. "Now, the headwinds are coming really because of Trump, and both the macro environment and the fiscal environment he's creating."

— City News Service