San Diego city finances are soooo screwed, and accordingly, so are taxpayers within city limits.
The original whistleblower you refer to is Shipione, an accountant, and her husband, equally vocal about the coming debacle, is Pat Shea, an attorney.
The looming fiscal train wreck for San Diego is still greatly underrated in magnitude due to my favorite niche subject: time lags. Several time lags are at work here which, when combined, will drop a grenade into the city council’s little party. One time lag is the reporting and recognition delay between the portfolio deterioration of the pension fund the end-of-reporting-period publication. Apply mark-to-market rules to today’s holdings and the pension fund is way underfunded relative to its promises.
Another unremarked lag comes from RE values falling and thus future property tax revenues falling as owners flood the county with assessment appeals. That lag is years long, and will slam county and school districts as well.
Yes, you can blame Peters, Manshaim (sp), and Atkins for this, all still in power, all still bobbing and weaving to dodge responsibility. The Union Tribune has been pretty decent about reporting the shennanigans over the years, but the public employee unions run the city.
Carl DeMaio is the one hope on the city council. Long a critic of city finances, he is conservative and one smart guy. Too bad April Boling, another critic and an accountant, lost to airhead Marti Emerald.
