SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — San Diego city councilmembers are making a last-ditch effort to restore roughly $10 million in arts and culture funding before the city's budget deadline.
Councilmembers Kent Lee and Henry Foster announced the proposal Friday morning, with less than a week left for the city to adopt its final budget for next year.
The plan would include a $3 million commitment from the Prebys Foundation to match the city's investment in the arts community. It would also restore $1.3 million in grant programs and allocate $6 million of the Transient Occupancy Tax to arts and culture programs.
The city's independent budget analyst also made recommendations to restore some funding for homeless shelters and youth services.
Other potential areas to save money include a plan to cancel a $2 million subcontract for automated license plate readers. San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl addressed the cameras earlier this week.
"When we are able to put people in places at a specific time, it helps us respond in the moment as well as after a crime has been committed so that we're catching somebody after the first crime and not after they've committed dozens of crimes," Wahl said.
Members of the public used Friday's meeting to make their own last-minute pleas.
"I also ask the council to cancel [the] ALPR contract and fully restore OCYS and library funding," one speaker said.
Another speaker tied library services directly to the arts funding debate.
"Cuts to the library and cuts to library hours are cuts to the arts and cuts to the arts are cuts to the library's ability to be able to provide these free services across the city," the speaker said.
The mayor's office declined to comment on the independent budget analyst's recommendations but told us in a statement that they respect the budget process and look forward to working with the council on the remainder of the budget process.
The city must adopt its final budget by Tuesday.
