Morning Report: Escondido's New Tax Hasn't Solved Budget Deficit

Voice of San Diego

June 20, 2025

Escondido is getting a bigger-than-expected infusion of tax money from its recently passed one-cent sales tax. The city now expects to bring in roughly $38 million annually, roughly $10 million more than expected.

But that still didn’t solve the city’s structural budget deficit, which has been years in the making.

As our Tigist Layne reports, the city has been deferring maintenance on city facilities and parks, eliminating vacant positions and putting off critical infrastructure needs.

Catching up on all those deferred costs means the city can’t be so easily bailed out by the tax measure.

Here’s some of what the tax money will do:

Twinsies: San Marcos is in a similar position to Escondido, Layne reports. Voters in that city also approved a one-cent sales tax that will ease, but not fix, the city’s structural budget deficit.

Imperial Beach Mayor Paloma Aguirre and Chula Vista Mayor John McCann are running to fill the San Diego County District 1 seat. / Photos by Ariana Drehsler for Voice of San Diego

San Diego County Board of Supervisor candidates Paloma Aguirre and John McCann made their pitch to voters in a televised debate earlier this week.

But the real star of the show might have been President Donald Trump.

The debate was a mostly substantive exchange about key issues facing San Diego County: Housing, homelessness, immigration, the Tijuana River sewage crisis and the county budget.

But Aguirre, a Democrat, also tried to paint McCann with a broad Trump brush, saying he would bring “MAGA chaos” to San Diego.

McCann, a self-described moderate who has won numerous elections in a Democratic-majority city, fired back, accusing Aguirre of lying about his record and failing to pay her taxes.

Overall, the candidates laid out competing visions for building more affordable housing, protecting immigrants and resolving the sewage crisis.

It’s official.

San Diego Unified’s board voted Wednesday to make Fabiola Bagula superintendent.

Back up: Bagula took the reins of the district nine months ago following the board’s firing of Lamont Jackson for sexually harassing district employees.

Board members made it clear they weren’t interested in launching a flashy search. Instead, they felt Bagula had exactly what it took to lead the state’s second-largest district through the leadership crisis.

Our Jakob McWhinney described the meeting as similar to a coronation celebration.

“Well over 100 people packed into the stuffy auditorium at the district’s University Heights headquarters,” he wrote. “Some even came with bouquets. When Bagula walked out onto the dais, the crowd leapt to their feet and erupted into applause.”

Now what? McWhinney writes Baula’s ringing endorsements also came with some big expectations. The district’s last two superintendents — one of whom made it to Washington DC and the other of whom was fired — show both the promise and the peril of the role. It’s yet to be seen what Bagula will make of it.

Fabiola Bagula on Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024. / Photo by Vito di Stefano for Voice of San Diego

The number of people becoming homeless in San Diego County continued to outpace the number moving into homes in May. The Regional Task Force on Homelessness reports that 1,076 people became homeless for the first time and 966 exited homelessness.

Your monthly reminder: For most of the last couple years, local efforts to house homeless residents haven’t kept up with the flood of people losing their homes.

Related: The Union-Tribune reports the Task Force, which coordinates the annual regional homeless census, acknowledged this week that it counted two dozen people in El Cajon who were staying outside city limits – and that there’s a chance others may have been tallied more than once.

Voice of San Diego is a nonprofit news organization supported by our members. We reveal why things are the way they are and expose facts that people in power might not want out there and explain complex local public policy issues so you can be engaged and make good decisions. Sign up for our newsletters at voiceofsandiego.org/newsletters/.