Daily Business Report: Monday, June 23, 2025
Sales Taxes to the Rescue – Sort of
By Tigist Layne | Voice of San Diego
It’s budget season, which means government agencies throughout San Diego County are finalizing their spending plans for the upcoming fiscal year.
In North County, Escondido and San Marcos recently approved balanced budgets thanks in part to incoming funds from their respective new sales tax measures approved by voters last November.
Before those measures passed, both cities were experiencing ongoing budget deficits that required city officials to make cuts to city services and programs.
Newsom’s 2022 fantasy — a $97.5B state surplus — hangs over state
By UT Editorial Board | San Diego Union Tribune
Lawmakers love to say budgets are “statements of values.” But in our state government, here’s a more apt description: They’re demonstrations of incompetence. Nothing better illustrates this than the profligate spending plan that Gov. Gavin Newsom got approved in June 2022.
The fiscal fiasco was built on the hallucinatory claim that California enjoyed a $97.5 billion surplus …
San Diego’s New Trash Fee Is Coming. Is There Any Way Around It?
By Bella Ross | Voice of San Diego
On the eve of a much-dreaded city budget meeting, the San Diego City Council approved a new trash fee for single-family homes after charging nothing for more than 100 years.
If not for the city’s $350 million budget deficit and resulting cuts, the trash fee discussion may have ended differently. Without the additional revenue, even deeper cuts to city services and staff were guaranteed.
But the city isn’t alone in its pocketbook pressures. Residents, too, have expressed concerns about absorbing the new fee, which goes into effect on July 1 and will cost homeowners between $32 and $43 a month, depending on the size of their trash bin.
