San Diego County budget

Supervisor Jim Desmond

5th District

Over the coming weeks, the County of San Diego will receive community input, deliberate and adjust, and adopt the 2022-23 budget.

I always believe this is one of the most important times of the year, as it's vital we spend taxpayer dollars effectively, while also maintaining a healthy finance state through operating reserves. I look at it this way – this is not the government's money, it's your money, and we must use it effectively to improve the lives of San Diegans.

This year's proposed budget is $7.15 billion, which is a budget bigger than the entire country of Costa Rica. With over 3.4 million people over 4,261 square miles, it takes a lot of money to make the county run.

I've put together just a few anecdotes below from our proposed budget, but if you have any questions or concerns, please reach out to my office.

It's imperative that San Diegans feel safe and that our law enforcement officers have the tools they need. The proposed budget looks to increase the Sheriff's Department budget by $47 million and adds 24 new positions. Protecting our communities is my top priority, and we need to recruit and retain the best and brightest law enforcement officers, firefighters, and other peace officers.

After advocating for money for our roads for a long time, I'm pleased to see that the proposed budget has an allocation of $60 million to maintain unincorporated county road surfaces. This is the most money allocated to road maintenance and improvement in the last decade.

We are also adding $41 million in District 5 parks and library projects, $30.9 million to operate 156 parks, 56,000 acres of parks, and 384 miles of trails and $28 million to operate 33 branch libraries, four electric bookmobiles, and five automated book kiosks.

These are just a few of the items I’m focused on when it comes to the budget. I’ll keep you updated on the progress.