budget

The Path to Ruin – a Review of New Republican Budget Proposal

April 7, 2011 by Andy Cohen

On Tuesday [4-5-11]America got a glimpse of just exactly what Republican legislators think of the very people they were hired to serve. Congressman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin—chairman of the House Budget Committee and designated Republican budget savant– released his much anticipated budget proposal for 2012, telling reporters that it wasn’t a budget, “it’s a cause.”

It’s a cause all right……..a cause to make one wish he or she lived in Canada.

Ocean Beach Elementary Thrives in the face of State Budget Woes

February 25, 2011 by Andy Cohen

For over 100 years, Ocean Beach Elementary has been in the business of educating the children of Ocean Beach, the sleepy seaside community of San Diego that is more characteristic of a small Oregon coastal town than it is the second largest city in the largest state in the United States. Take a stroll through OB, as it’s referred to, and one gets a sense that not much has changed in the last 30 years, which is why the local residents love it so much.

Change does not come easy in OB, and that’s just the way they like it.

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How Many Progressive Budget Analysts Does It Take to Discuss the Military?

February 15, 2011 by Source

By David Swanson / opednews.com / February 15, 2011 Whether or not one recklessly and misleadingly includes Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid in discussions of the federal discretionary budget, the fact remains that over half of the discretionary budget (of everything other than Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid) is military. The primary talking […]

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How do you close a desert, Mr. Governor?

February 1, 2011 by Frank Gormlie

Editor: We wanted to repost this article as our new governor also wants to close certain parks. This was originally published on June 8, 2009.

by Frank Gormlie

Here’s what got me laughing. I read in the Union-Tribune just the other day about how the Governor wants to close a number of parks, beaches and deserts for budgetary reasons, including Anza-Borrego.

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Hey, Obama, here’s some stuff we can cut in San Diego

December 7, 2010 by Dixon Guizot

As everyone knows, President Obama is a gifted orator who has voiced several rousing, meaningless, and unmemorable riffs on abstract concepts like hope and change. But he’s never been as inspiring as he was yesterday, when he told the nation how we won’t be raising taxes on our super-rich. To hear the president, in a […]

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San Diego budget cuts target OB Fire Station for ‘brown-outs’ and reduction in lifeguards

October 21, 2010 by Staff

A local news source has reported that the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department is considering adding the Ocean Beach Fire Station on Voltaire – a one-unit fire station – to its list of fire-stations subject to “brown-outs”, as part of the budget cutting for fiscal year 2012. Reductions in lifeguard services are also being contemplated to meet the $72 million budget deficit.

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Ten Myths of the California Budget

March 31, 2010 by Source

Editor: The following Ten Myths was prepared this month by the California Budget Project. Go here to see their nifty graphs and pie charts.

Myth #1 : The Largest Share of the State Budget Goes To Prisons

The Facts:

* The State spends more than four times as much on K-12 education as it does on corrections and one and one-quarter times as much on higher education as it does on corrections.

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Dark Days At City Libraries Go Into Effect

March 21, 2010 by Anna Daniels

by Anna Daniels

The reduced hours schedule for our libraries went into effect Saturday (March 20). The Central library is now closed on Saturdays because of the draconian 10% mid year budget cuts exacted from the library budget by the mayor and approved by the city council this past December.

That 10% cut was more than any other General Fund Department had to sustain. Think about that- our largest library which supports your branch, and serves all citizens- is now closed on Saturdays. And the hours have also been cut at our branches, which I will address further on.

We should all be asking “Why is the mayor balancing the budget on the back of our library system?” I suspect the answer is because he can. We didn’t stop him.

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OB’s Missing Fire Pit ‘Found’ and Other Updates

March 4, 2010 by Frank Gormlie

Number 9 – OB’s missing fire pit has been “found.”

Actually, the City knew all along where it was. It was destroyed when all of OB’s fire pits were moved to safer ground behind the berm late last year. OB had nine fire pits at the end of the summer and now we’re down to only eight.

So, according to Park and Recreation Department Director Stacey LoMedico, OB will not receive another one. We’ve got all we’re gonna get. And we may lose them as well.

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OB Library Stays Open But Hours Are Cut

February 25, 2010 by Mary E. Mann

This year, the city of San Diego was obliged to trim 3.8 million dollars from the library budget. 3.8 million dollars. To put that in perspective, that’s roughly 760,000 used books off of Amazon. That’s one library, right there.

The Ocean Beach library seemed particularly vulnerable to these cuts, given its proximity to the larger but less centrally located Point Loma Library. Throughout the past few years of budget cuts and closing scares, the Ocean Beach community has spoken quite loudly and clearly against the closing of the small Ocean Beach branch on the corner of Santa Monica and Sunset Cliffs.

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Serious Cuts Looming for San Diego Schools

February 10, 2010 by Doug Porter

Editor: The following is another in a series about budgetary cut-backs at the San Diego Unified School District by our-man-on-the-scene Doug Porter. All the public schools that service Ocean Beach will be affected: OB Elementary, Dana Middle School, Correia Middle School, and Point Loma High. It is incumbent for OB residents to stay on top of this issue, and thanks to Doug, the OB Rag is attempting to do just that.

I attended the School Board meeting last night (February 9th) and listened to the reports given by the district staff about finding ways to fund their priorities for San Diego Unified Schools. These priorities, which emerged through public input, both at Board meetings and through a series of Town Halls held during the final months of 2009 were: ….

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Reader Rant: Police Response Was Too Overwhelming, Costly and Wrong

February 1, 2010 by Source

By the looks of what happened at the foot of Newport Avenue on Saturday afternoon with the nude swimmer, you’d think that police-community relations in OB had returned to the 1970’s.

Reports of up to twenty police cars roaring into OB, speeding down residential streets – to deal with one nude guy and the commotion that resulted when police and lifeguards tried to cite him – has made my blood boil.

It’s apparent that the San Diego Police Department has not learned a single thing in all the decades of its “troubles” with the citizens and youth of Ocean Beach.

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Upcoming March 4th Protests To Challenge State Budget Process

January 26, 2010 by Doug Porter

Everybody knows that the State of California is broke, right?

It’s the recession, ‘they’ say. Tax revenues are down and the State has no choice but to trim its budget. San Diego’s schools are just going to have to suck it up, tighten their belts and find ways to live with the $90 million in cuts that the Governor’s budget calls for in the coming year. On top of the $200 million that has already been cut over the past two years.

What the hell, ‘they’ say, the State’s proposed budget actually ‘protects education’. The Guvenator said so in his state of the State speech just a couple of weeks ago. ‘They’ say there’s nothing that can be done.

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School Board Funding Shell Game

January 14, 2010 by Doug Porter

A Budget Nightmare in the Making

Gov. Schwarzenegger promised to protect education with his budget last week. And, in a sense, he was right: this year’s cut are not as deep and wide as they have been in the past two budgets. So it depends on your definition of “protect”.

The Governor failed to mention the $1.5 billion education funding cut called for next year; nor did he highlight the decreased cost of living adjustment. It’s not that his budget planners failed to tell him about the reductions–the governor earmarked $1.2 billion in administrative costs and $300 million in savings to be had by allowing districts to contract out for services. The problem is that those earmarks are unlikely to survive Legislative hearings. And then there’s the little problem of the cuts—many of which were made to administrative budgets–that have already been made over the past two years.

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“Union-Tribune’s” Falsehoods Seek to Divide and Conquer Public Education Supporters

January 6, 2010 by Doug Porter

The San Diego Unified School Board held a couple of meetings on Tuesday, discussing options in their search for a permanent School Superintendent and hoping to make some sense of the implications of deep funding cuts expected when Gov. Schwarzenegger announces his 2010 budget later this week.

Our local fish wrap (the Union-Tribune) blasted the Board in advance of the first meeting in an editorial:

“Continuing its radical consolidation of power, the San Diego Unified school board majority has scheduled a special meeting today at which members are expected to take the first step toward eliminating the position of superintendent.”

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Fire pits out, tsunami signs in

December 17, 2009 by Frank Gormlie

Is it me or does this thing about the City putting up tsunami signs ring a wrong tune in these budget cutting times?

On one hand, OB and the rest of San Diego beaches are threatened with losing our fire pits, yet at the same time, the City goes around and puts up these warning signs.

Whew! I am sooo relieved. I never would have known which way to run, ride or skate if OB was faced with a tsunami.

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School Board Budget Workshop Offers Little Hope For Next Year

December 17, 2009 by Doug Porter

The San Diego Unified School District Board of Education workshop on the looming budget crisis painted a bleak picture of the future for education in America’s Finest City on Tuesday evening. The auditorium was about one-third filled with concerned parents and two of the five Board members were absent as the district staff presented one report after another outlining options and suggested courses of action for the 2010-2011 budget.

You have to give the Board of Education credit for coming to grips with the problem. They’ve held five “town hall” style forums, …

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More on the fire pits: the City has been trying to close them for years and it’s not about money.

December 15, 2009 by Frank Gormlie

The City of San Diego has been trying to close or remove the fire pits at the beaches for years. This is the only conclusion I can reach after reviewing a 3 page memo that has crossed my desk that was given to the Peninsula Planning Board way back in May of 2003 – over 6 years ago.

The memo is from the San Diego Police Department Western Division and describes a power point presentation to be given to that planning organization that calls for the “Seasonal Removal of the Ocean Beach Fire Rings.” The proposal called for the removal of OB’s fire pits from October 1 to April 30th each year.

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ABC-10 News picks up on interest of Fire Pit Adoption

December 14, 2009 by Frank Gormlie

SEE UPDATES IN COMMENTS

San Diego’s ABC news affiliate Channel 10 came out to interview me this morning about our ideas of adopting fire pits in OB. Mike Chen, the reporter and camera guy all rolled into one, appeared at our doorstep wanting an interview and we couldn’t resist the PR. I quickly threw on my OB Rag T-shirt and got in front of the camera.

As you may know, the OB Rag is promoting the idea that instead of the City of San Diego removing OB’s eight fire pits, that people, individuals, businesses, churches, civic organizations adopt them and pledge to maintain them. This is similar to the idea that CalTrans has – having groups adopt sections of the freeways in order to maintain them.

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Call to Action: Last Minute Budget Meeting Set By School Board

December 14, 2009 by Doug Porter

Stressed out for the holidays? Running around trying spread all that good cheer while not breaking the budget? Well, if you’ve got kids in school or care about education, you need to revise your schedule for this week. A critical meeting of the San Diego Unified School District Board of Education has been called for this week and your child’s school may be on the chopping block.

After parent groups around San Diego had sent out emails & made phone calls alerting parents to a Board of Education Meeting on Tuesday evening, they learned that the budget wasn’t really on that agenda. Another, hastily arraigned, meeting of the Board of Education has been announced for Wednesday, December 16 at 5 pm. The meeting will be held at the Board of Education complex (4100 Normal Street, in University Heights).

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Poll shows support for local branch libraries but also shows ambivalence

December 7, 2009 by Frank Gormlie

Our recent poll on cut-backs to the City’s libraries shows strong support for the local branches – including, of course, OB’s library. But the poll also demonstrates a certain ambivalence, and a weakened support for a downtown Central Library for San Diego.

58% of respondents gave responses that reflect a strong undercurrent of support for local library branches. Of that, 29% said they were amazed that Mayor Sanders was trying to cut libraries again. 12% want to use monies ear-marked for the Central library to keep the branches (and rec centers) open. 9% claimed they were ready to commit civil disobedience in order to keep the local branches open. 8% stated that reduced hours were a real hardship as they and their family depend on the local branch.

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Education Budget Goes Bust – Drastic Cuts Likely in 2010

December 4, 2009 by Doug Porter

The Town Hall budget forum in San Diego High’s Library drew over 100 concerned parents on Thursday Night. School Board interim Superintendent Bill Kowba and Board member Richard Barrera made a power point presentation that outlined the funding shortfalls faced by local educators with expected State contributions for the 2010 fiscal year.

The bottom line, as presented in this meeting, is that ALL of the cuts in programs that have been bandied about in the news media and various on-line discussions will not cover the expected deficit.

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Coastal Commission has last word on removal of OB’s fire pits

December 3, 2009 by Staff

OCEAN BEACH, CA. There may be a Santa Claus after all – if you like fire pits and rings at the beach. The California Coastal Commission has just informed the City of San Diego that it will need a permit from the state to remove the the fire rings in Ocean Beach, and the other beaches – Mission, PB and La Jolla Shores.

Mayor Jerry Sanders has proposed removing the 186 fire pits in order to save bucks on their maintenance as he grapples with a 179 million dollar deficit.

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Mayor Sanders Changes his Position on Libraries! Seriously?

December 1, 2009 by Anna Daniels

by Anna Daniels

Mayor Sanders is rethinking the draconian cuts he has proposed to our libraries! I attended a Library Commission Meeting on 12/1. Kris Michell, Sander’s Chief of Staff addressed the commission and said the Mayor values and has listened to the feedback he has been receiving on the library issue. Good work everyone! Each of you who took the time to respond through emails and phone calls and postings to the OB Rag made a difference!

Sanders is now proposing a 36 hour schedule throughout the whole system, and no staff layoffs. This new proposal reflects a $1.5 Million change in the Mayor’s current budget according to Michell who left the meeting after deliverings her remarks.

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Mayor Sanders is Gunning for our Libraries – Again!

November 28, 2009 by Anna Daniels

by Anna Daniels

Yes- it is “déjà vu all over again.” This time last year Mayor Sanders proposed closing 7 branch libraries, including Ocean Beach. Ocean Beach responded immediately. Ocean Beach responded unequivocally- DO NOT CLOSE OUR LIBRARY! A number of you were even willing to participate in non-violent civil disobedience by forming a human chain around your library in the event of closure.

Your response so inspired and encouraged me personally that I became involved with a city-wide effort to rally all of the communities against the closure of the other 6 branch libraries. We mobilized quickly, acted in unity and we won. Read about it here and feel very, very good. Just don’t feel so good that you think you should bow your collective heads to this year’s proposed library cuts. That would be so not-OB.

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Open Letter to Mayor Sanders from Friends of the OB Library

November 23, 2009 by Source

The Honorable Mayor Jerry Sanders:

The Friends of the Ocean Beach Library recently met and it was decided to write you about the impending budget situation, particularly as it might apply to our own Ocean Beach Library. We want to be involved in bringing possible ideas forward to you and the City. We wanted to share with you four thoughts that we came up with:

1. Any cuts that might come to the library system, should be shared equally among all libraries and library departments.

2. Closing all libraries one day a week, possibly on a weekend.

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Waiting for the Mayor’s budget … to see what it says about libraries

November 16, 2009 by Anna Daniels

by Anna Daniels

A recent comment stated how difficult it is to figure out the City budget situation. And I agree with that. I am anxiously awaiting the release of the Mayor’s mid year budget adjustment on the 22nd of November. Remember last year? We were fighting for libraries and parks. In reality, it has been an ongoing battle for the activists among us for 4 straight years now.

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New Fire Chief contemplates “beach closures” due to budget cuts

November 13, 2009 by Frank Gormlie

San Diego’s new head of the Fire Department, Fire Chief Javier Mainer, has been tasked by Mayor Jerry Sanders to cut $34.7 million from his budget, which includes fire departments, medics, and life guards. In a recent interview with KPBS he indicated that”beach closures” are on the table.

Chief Mainer said San Diego citizens may see less fire engines and fewer lifeguards. This could mean beach closures.

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UC Santa Cruz students occupy campus building in protest of cuts

September 27, 2009 by Source

Editor: We have heard that students at UC Santa Cruz have taken over a campus building in protest of the cuts proposed for the UC system. On September 24th, students at UC Santa Cruz began the occupation of the Graduate Student Commons as part of a day of action at all UCs across the state. The occupation continues. They have set up a website here. The students have issued the following statement:
____________________
We are occupying this building at the University of California, Santa Cruz, because the current situation has become untenable. Across the state, people are losing their jobs …

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5,000 Rally at UC Berkeley Against Budget Cuts / Increased Fees

September 24, 2009 by Source

BERKELEY — Thousands of UC students marched through downtown Berkeley and the area around campus this afternoon, staging a sit-down protest and blocking traffic as part of a demonstration against cuts to the university budget and proposed fee increases.

The unscheduled march started at the end of a two-hour rally on Sproul Plaza attended by an estimated 5,000 students, professors and other university employees. …

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Lance Murphy April 25, 2024 at 6:29 am on Open Letter to Councilwoman Campbell on ‘Complete Communities’ from Point Loma HomeownerLynne, Feel free to distribute my comments if the goal is to support a discussion and enable a sharing of experiences, perceptions, facts and opinions....
Mat Wahlstrom April 24, 2024 at 7:38 pm on City Council Committee Sides With Upstart Planning Group in Uptown and With Existing Group in La JollaTook the words right out of my mouth, kh – literally and figuratively, from almost three years ago: https://obrag.org/2021/11/another-assault-in-the-war-on-san-diegos-community-planning-groups/
Chris April 24, 2024 at 6:15 pm on Students at PLNU Are Angry With Administration For Disrespecting Gay Community and Chilling Free SpeechNot to excuse the administration, but why did these students choose a school with a known anti LGBTQ stance due its religious affiliation?
kh April 24, 2024 at 5:55 pm on ‘Hey You! Get Up! We’ve Outlawed Sleeping in Public!’Not making false pipedream promises would be a start. I wish I could locate that press release from Todd Gloria as a councilmember where he...
kh April 24, 2024 at 5:53 pm on ‘Hey You! Get Up! We’ve Outlawed Sleeping in Public!’Sure. And vary widely based on zoning as well. I just checked two recently sold homes in Mira Mesa, and what they were reassessed at....
kh April 24, 2024 at 5:38 pm on Planning Groups Forced to Pay New $1,000 Fee to Appeal Projects Stifles Community DemocracyI know one of the appeals from 2022(?) was on the Inn at Sunset cliffs, and the appeal prevailed at city council. It was not...
T April 24, 2024 at 5:03 pm on Planning Groups Forced to Pay New $1,000 Fee to Appeal Projects Stifles Community DemocracyThis is great info. Last week at the PBPB meeting their planner was talking about the new $1000 appeal charge and why the city thinks...
gilbert field April 24, 2024 at 4:47 pm on ‘Hey You! Get Up! We’ve Outlawed Sleeping in Public!’Getting back to the original comment, which was what Larry Turner would do to reduce homelessness, I am still not sure what he means or...
kh April 24, 2024 at 3:38 pm on California Leaders Take Sides in ‘Most Important Supreme Court Case on Homelessness in 40 Years’Count me in the last group. Glad to see Governor Newsom has come around to my side and finally figured out that letting people die...
chris schultz April 24, 2024 at 3:34 pm on ‘Hey You! Get Up! We’ve Outlawed Sleeping in Public!’Exactly, land gets more expensive the closer to the coast generally speaking. The same standard doesn't apply everywhere.
CARL M ZANOLLI April 24, 2024 at 3:32 pm on Students at PLNU Are Angry With Administration For Disrespecting Gay Community and Chilling Free SpeechParents spend so much $$$ to send their kids to PLNU because they weren't accepted elsewhere.
Gail April 24, 2024 at 3:10 pm on Planning Groups Forced to Pay New $1,000 Fee to Appeal Projects Stifles Community DemocracyI agree, these are land use issues heard at community planning meetings, by volunteers. There is a $500 stipend offered by the City for the...
kh April 24, 2024 at 3:02 pm on City Council Committee Sides With Upstart Planning Group in Uptown and With Existing Group in La JollaThis whole process is trash. Some goons at the planning dept wasted a whole lot of community members' time on this farce. The city made...
kh April 24, 2024 at 2:22 pm on ‘Hey You! Get Up! We’ve Outlawed Sleeping in Public!’Assessed value can be far from the true value unless you just purchased it. The land value of my property in OB is over 85%...
Dr. Jack Hammer April 24, 2024 at 11:35 am on Students at PLNU Are Angry With Administration For Disrespecting Gay Community and Chilling Free SpeechBut isn't that why the parents pay so much $$$ for this education? So their little darlings can be protected from the 'evils' of the...