With the new fiscal year set to begin July 1, chief executives at San Diego City Hall and the County Administration Center have unveiled budget plans for 2001.
The City Council and the Board of Supervisors have yet to hold hearings on their respective spending plans. The boards must give their approvals for their respective budgets to go into effect.
Supervisors are scheduled to formally receive the county budget at the May 16 meeting; county budget hearings will begin May 30.
The City Council heard an initial budget presentation May 2, and will deliberate their budget at its June 21 meeting.
City Manager Michael Uberuaga has drawn up a total combined budget of $2.1 billion , which comes in at $98.9 million less than the current annual budget.
The proposed spending plan includes $666.5 million in general fund expenditures, $898.7 million for non-general fund operations, $539.6 million for capital improvements and $174.3 million in interfund transactions.
The plan would add $3.3 million to the city’s reserves, bringing them up to $13.6 million. Mayor Susan Golding called for holding that amount in reserve, noting reserves then would be at their highest level ever; her office projected reserves will exceed $20 million by 2005.
The trend in hotel bed tax, known formally as transient occupancy tax, is up. The budget shows $92.1 million in transient occupancy tax income in the 1999 fiscal year, and anticipates $96.2 million in the current year and $105.6 million in fiscal 2001.
“The proposed fiscal year 2001 TOT budget assumes growth in receipts of 8 percent over current year receipts,” the budget document says, “and additional revenue from new hotels developed and operating in the Downtown area due to the ballpark district redevelopment project.”
Some 52 percent of the transient occupancy tax goes to the general fund while 48 percent goes to promotional programs and other purposes designated by the City Council.
County Chief Administrative Officer Walt Ekard has called for expenditures of $2.94 billion in 2001, up from $2.67 billion in the current year.
Ekard’s office noted the 2001 plan allocates funds to complete all remaining deferred maintenance projects by the end of the fiscal year, and it calls for allocating $11 million per year.
Detailed budget information is available on the Internet. The city’s Web site is (www.ci.san-diego.ca.us). The county budget was to be posted at (www.co.san-diego.ca.us/cnty/cntydepts/general/auditor/budinfo).
