SAN DIEGOSAN DIEGO — This month’s anticipated showdown over proposed budget cuts in San Diego could prompt Mayor Todd Gloria to invoke a powerful but rarely used tool known as the line-item veto.
The controversial tool has been criticized for giving San Diego mayors too much power because it allows them to make nearly unlimited adjustments to the final budget that the City Council must approve each June.
But ers say it’s ideal for contentious budget years like this one, calling it an important part of the give-and-take between the council and mayor that helps create consensus.
The nine-member council can override such a veto with a supermajority of six votes.
But getting to that total could be difficult this year, with the council split 5-4 on many issues — including the very question of whether the council should be more aggressive about asserting its own legislative authority.
Created in 2006 when San Diego switched to a strong-mayor form of government, the line-item veto has only been used a handful of times since.
Mayor Jerry Sanders used it twice during lean budget years before and after the Great Recession of 2008. Mayor Bob Filner used it once in 2013, and Mayor Kevin Faulconer used it in 2017 — the last time it was used.
Even if Gloria doesn’t use the line-item veto this year, the threat of it could discourage council from making aggressive changes to his proposed $2.15 billion budget when they vote June 11.
The council’s five-member majority, who tend to be more adversarial with Gloria, have already signaled that they’d like to make substantial changes to the spending plan he proposed April 12.
They say many of his proposed cuts would hit low-income neighborhoods and communities of color unacceptably hard, possibly rolling back recent progress on social equity and eroding morale and trust in affected areas.
Gloria already retreated from some of those cuts, which would have totaled about $40 million, when he released his May budget revisions. He restored some money for eviction protections, a popular anti-gang program and other initiatives.
But many of those cuts remain in the proposed budget. And the mayor has challenged council to find other cuts that would save the same amount of money and not damage crucial programs.
“You have the power to restore some of the cuts you may disagree with,” he told the council in late April. “But as you know, doing so will require cutting elsewhere, and unfortunately there are no easy choices for any of us.”
But the line-item veto greatly limits the council’s power to restore those proposed cuts. Gloria could cancel any changes they make, forcing the council to try to get six votes to override the veto.
“It’s a powerful tool,” former City Council President Tony Young told The San Diego Union-Tribune last week. “It’s something you calculate into your decisions if you’re a good legislator.”
Young, who led the council in 2010 and 2011 when Sanders was mayor, said the line-item veto was a wedge that he and the mayor could use during closed-door negotiations before budget votes.
“He would point to it during negotiations, and that’s when I would sometimes let him know I had the votes lined up to override it,” Young said.
He said Council President Sean Elo-Rivera should be ready to do the same with Gloria.
“Sean has to anticipate what those line-items will be and line up votes on things that are really important,” Young said.
But using the line-item veto can also be dangerous politically for a mayor, Young said. Having a veto overridden can make a mayor look weak and erode his authority and ability to govern, he said.
The line-item veto had the opposite effect on Faulconer, who created an outcry from the council’s five-member majority when he successfully used it in 2017.
The 5-4 split was far different then. The council had five Democrats and four Republicans. Now it’s nine Democrats with different takes on how progressive and powerful the council should be.
Faulconer, a Republican, took the unprecedented step in 2017 of using the line-item veto to add money to the budget for a special election he wanted to hold that fall to raise hotel taxes.
The council’s five Democrats couldn’t get a Republican to them for the sixth vote needed to override that action.
The Democrats argued that the line-item could only be used to restore cuts made by the council or to reduce new spending added by the council — not to add new spending the council hadn’t even discussed when making its budget changes.
But City Attorney Mara Elliott, citing the city charter, sided with Faulconer.
“The Mayor has broad authority to approve, veto, or modify any line item approved by the City Council,” she said in a legal memo shortly after Faulconer used the line-item veto to add the election money.
In contrast, the council’s power to override a line-item veto is far more limited.
“The City Council’s action to override the Mayor’s veto is limited to consideration of the items vetoed or modified by the Mayor,” Elliott wrote in 2017.
That same year, Faulconer used the line-item veto to reduce the office budgets of two council Democrats he was at odds with politically, Barbara Bry and Chris Ward.
Critics at the time warned that could set a dangerous precedent, but it hasn’t happened since.
Faulconer said last week that the line-item veto matters a lot, even when it isn’t used.
“It was always important that they knew it was there,” he said. “But I rarely used it, because I believed in the power of persuasion.”
The threat of the line-item veto helps create consensus, but it also discourages council from adding money for pet projects in their district, Faulconer said.
“It helps them keep a citywide perspective,” said Faulconer, who served on the council for eight years before becoming mayor in 2014. “It’s an important part of the give-and-take. The threat of it gives council a more responsible perspective.”
The city’s independent budget analyst, Charles Modica, said last week that the threat of a line-item veto doesn’t play a key role in the last-minute budget changes he recommends to the council each June.
“While I’m cognizant of the mayor’s authority to veto council’s budget adoption, the threat of a potential veto doesn’t have a huge influence on the final set of budget modifications my office recommends or presents as options,” Modica said.
That’s because the last-minute changes he recommends are based primarily on what spending a majority of council have said they .
But Modica agreed that the line-item could be a factor this year, partly because the city’s lack of money might prompt the council to make cuts in different areas than those the mayor is proposing.
“Given the city’s budget constraints this year, council could further consider reducing other expenditures in the proposed budget to free up resources to spend elsewhere,” Modica said. “I’m sure some of those proposed expenditures are more sensitive than others, and I’d expect reducing more sensitive items could trigger the mayor to issue a veto.”
Modica said he will try to steer clear of such decisions.
“Which of those items — if any — council chooses to reduce will be a decision that carries political considerations,” he said. “Council are better equipped to weigh those political considerations than I am.”
The council is scheduled to discuss possible budget revisions during a public hearing this Friday and then vote on them June 11.
If the council makes any changes to the mayor’s proposed budget, they must send those changes to the mayor within 24 hours. The mayor then has five days to use the line-item veto. If he uses it, the council would have five days to vote on a veto override.
Gloria, Sanders, Elo-Rivera and Council President Pro Tem Joe LaCava declined requests for comment.
