Like many cities, San Diego’s Mayor Gloria ignores basic economics with ongoing budget roller-coaster rides of deficit spending on things like unused bike paths, which then must be addressed through substantial cuts in services in order to fix a budget deficit he created. With minimal controls or incentives to abate such poor financial responsibility, budget highs and lows will likely continue to be the norm. Maybe it’s not an optimum solution, but one that might work would be to tie the salary of those with the most control of the budget to their overspending — i.e., the larger the deficit they create, the more their salary is reduced. I don’t know if that would work, but the current system doesn’t seem to be.
— Mark Blakey, Bonita