With a rare unanimous budget approval vote by the San Diego City Council on Monday, Mayor Kevin Faulconer signed the Fiscal Year 2017 Budget of over $3 billion, which marks a doubling of infrastructure funding and near-tripling of road funding since he took office.
The budget, signed on Tuesday, includes recruitment and retention issues for police officers, expands recreation center hours, expands popular after-school and youth jobs programs, funds a new Pension Stabilization Reserve fund and invests in improvements for Balboa Park, according to the City of San Diego.
“With the City Council’s approval of my third budget, we’re continuing to make significant investments in San Diego’s neighborhoods and building a better future for all residents,” Mayor Faulconer said Tuesday. “And, for the second year in a row, the City Council took the rare step of unanimously approving my budget proposal with minor amendments that I will support."
With $109 million in the new budget, funding for street repairs has increased nearly threefold since Faulconer took office in 2014. Faulconer’s goal of repairing 1,000 miles of streets over five years will also be exceeded, according to the City of San Diego.
“Every community deserves to have the basic necessities to help people thrive. This budget helps to achieve that goal,” City Councilor Myrtle Cole said.
The city has set aside over $4 million for the San Diego Police Department for officer and 911 dispatcher recruitment. San Diego Police Chief Shelley Zimmerman said is looking forward to this new budget.
She believes it will send a message to the SDPD employees that they will recruit and retain the very best for the city.
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“What this budget does is that it once again makes us competitive to not only hire the very best police officers and 911 dispatchers but also retain them,” Zimmerman said.
The new budget will go into effect July 1 and also will help pay for the new $13 million Skyline Hills Branch Library – a 15,000 square-foot branch library that is scheduled to be completed ahead of schedule and open for neighborhood residents this fall.
