By Kristen Nevarez Schweizer

April 17, 2026

I have never written about politics. Ever. I follow local politicians the way I follow celebrities (that is to say: loosely, and primarily for gossip).

I was the Cultural Chair on the Downtown Community Planning Council from 2013 to 2015, when San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria represented District 3. I’ve worked at local nonprofits and for The San Diego Business Journal. For over a decade, I’ve covered local art news for Vanguard Culture. All to say: I know my way around city budget proposals.

My first instinct when I saw the FY27 budget proposal was to assume I was misreading it because even after the 2008 financial crisis, San Diego kept arts funding.

During the (global, mind you) pandemic, San Diego kept arts funding.

This is the first proposed budget in modern memory to nearly eliminate grants to arts organizations and decimate library funding. They’re calling it a pause, but the 2027 budget effectively kills the entire cultural affairs grants program. These are grants that keep San Diego’s nonprofit arts organizations alive. Cultural Affairs grants often serve as the anchor for federal matching grants, meaning a single line-item deletion triggers a cascade of losses.

We’re talking about already-underfunded libraries. From Balboa Park to ComicCon, to San Diego Pride, to The Wheelchair Dancers Organization. They’re all affected. (Full list at the bottom of this op-ed.)

“Some of these [library] locations may close, others may have adjustments, but others may be untouched,” said Mayor Gloria in a recent interview. “We recognize that in some communities the library may be the only way that folks can access books. Rec centers may be the only option for recreation. Bottom line, we have to balance the budget. There isn’t a lot of slack in the line, really, anywhere, so every department will be impacted.”

A question was floated from the dais: anyone who wanted a different approach should propose an alternative.

Maybe I’m simple, but I think the alternative is straightforward and reveals a snag in Gloria’s statement. It is sitting right there in the same document. The budget that eliminates the $11.8 million for arts grants is the same budget that increases the police department by $14 million, bringing the SDPD total to $726 million. 

Every month at North Park Main Street’s meeting, I hear a report from a competent, empathetic SDPD officer about their terrific work in the North Park neighborhood and their need for more officers. (I think it goes without saying that I’m pro public safety.)

So, I’m actually asking, without libraries, where will unhoused people go for internet access, and where will unemployed people go for job-search resources? Where will thousands of at-risk youth go after school without rec centers or subsidized arts programming? Libraries and arts nonprofits keep people out of crisis and off the police’s radar. Libraries and arts nonprofits provide the mental health scaffolding, education, and basic human dignity to help the same populations that police will soon have to handle.

This is such a short-sighted decision that I started asking what story this budget tells, and what story Gloria’s administration has stopped telling. Because this budget is not from the young Todd Gloria who stood at the podium in Balboa Park and talked about what this city owes its artists. 

I was there for the before.

I already mentioned I was the Cultural Chair on the Downtown Community Planning Council during the time Todd Gloria was the District 3 City Councilman (and the year he was our interim mayor). Then, Gloria represented the zip codes that include Balboa Park, downtown theaters and music halls, and much of this city’s cultural infrastructure. He ran on the identity of a local boy who lived blocks from Balboa Park. Then, the arts weren’t a plank in his platform; they were supposedly the childhood air he still breathed.

But that was then.

As mayor, Gloria has increased the police budget every single year he has been in office. His first budget included a $23 million increase to SDPD. His FY2023 budget added another $13.8 million, bringing the total to $584 million, accompanied by his press release declaring, “Lawlessness will not rule the day in our city.” 

Year over year, the number has climbed. The FY2027 proposal lands at $726 million. (Math: In the last decade, the city has increased the SDPD budget by over $200 million.) Gloria continues this trajectory without interruption, in good and bad budget years.

To be fair about the bad ones: San Diego voters narrowly rejected a one-cent sales tax increase in November 2024 that would have generated roughly $400 million annually. That failure created the structural hole Gloria is now trying to fill. The deficit is real. The constraint is real. These are not invented talking points.

But a constraint is not a value system. A deficit tells you the size of the problem; it does not tell you what is sacred and what is expendable. Gloria’s budget precisely answers that question. The police budget is sacred. The arts grants program, which survived 2008 and COVID-19, he is openly calling expendable.

I don’t know exactly when Gloria’s rebranding began, but I have a guess as to why. 

I’m sure you do too.

The council has the power to amend this budget before June 9. Last year, council members Henry Foster III, Joe LaCava, Sean Elo-Rivera, and Kent Lee identified additional revenue sources that helped restore some of the cuts Gloria proposed, including arts and culture funding. Whether they do so again — and whether it’s enough — depends entirely on whether the public makes enough noise to give our councilmembers a reason to.

There is one month of public comment remaining. San Diego Arts Matters and Arts + Culture San Diego are coordinating the response. If you are in San Diego, now is the moment to call your representative, tag them on social media, and show up for our city’s future. Join San Diego ART Matters, Arts+Culture: San Diego, and regional arts and culture leaders for a public press conference calling attention to the proposed elimination of City funding for arts and culture grants in the FY27 budget. 

Artists, cultural workers, nonprofit organizations, educators, and community advocates from across the region are encouraged to show up in force on Monday, April 20, 12:30 p.m. Civic Center Plaza (1200 Third Avenue, San Diego, CA 92101). Maximum participation is critical—this is a visible moment to demonstrate the scale, unity, and impact of San Diego’s creative community.

Learn more about this event HERE.

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Organizations currently receiving funding from the City of San Diego:

Museums & Cultural Institutions 
San Diego Natural History Museum — $343,195 
San Diego Comic Convention (Comic-Con International) — $342,251 
Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego — $341,323 
Reuben H. Fleet Science Center — $304,639 
San Diego Museum of Art — $303,520 
San Diego Air & Space Museum — $253,800 
Balboa Park Cultural Partnership — $212,153 
NTC Foundation (Liberty Station Arts District) — $225,823 
The New Children’s Museum — $223,243 
Japanese Friendship Garden — $216,698 
Mingei International Museum — $197,326 
Timken Museum of Art — $188,499 
Maritime Museum of San Diego — $181,046 
San Diego Museum of Us — $138,772 
La Jolla Historical Society — $111,578 
San Diego Automotive Museum — $107,159 
San Diego Model Railroad Museum — $92,436 
San Diego Center for Jewish Culture — $91,983 
Athenaeum Music & Arts Library — $81,203 
San Diego Art Institute (ICA San Diego) — $66,764 
San Diego History Center — $61,659 
Centro Cultural de la Raza — $42,108 
Center for World Music — $53,143 
Save Our Heritage Organisation — $44,937 
Persian Cultural Center — $47,168
Gaslamp Quarter Historical Foundation — $39,946 
San Diego Archaeological Center — $34,219 
WorldBeat Cultural Center — $33,029 
New Americans Museum — $30,828 
San Diego Chinese Historical Museum — $28,276 
San Diego Museum Council — $20,253 
Visions Museum of Textile Art — $21,162 
San Diego Architectural Foundation — $18,399 
The Italian Cultural Center of San Diego — $14,785 
San Diego Filipino Cinema — $14,424 
The House of China — $12,529 
Lambda Archives of San Diego — $10,000 
Lao Community Cultural Center — $10,000 
Women’s Museum of California — $41,705 
Balboa Art Conservation Center — $53,171 
Balboa Park Online Collaborative — $68,872

Youth & Education 
Outside the Lens — $129,351 
ArtReach — $82,124 
Fern Street Community Arts — $59,419 
Arts Education Connection San Diego — $52,100 
The AjA Project — $38,888 
Isadoranow Foundation / Seaside Arts Center — $29,589 
San Diego Urban Warriors — $10,100

Theatres 
La Jolla Playhouse — $383,884 
The Old Globe — $382,057 
Cygnet Theatre Company — $143,929 
Diversionary Theatre — $98,237 
San Diego Junior Theatre — $87,594 
San Diego Musical Theatre — $71,232 
Trinity Theatre Company — $63,563 
Playwrights Project — $55,516 
MOXIE Theatre — $44,250 
Otic Theater Collective — $21,947 
Blindspot Collective — $20,852 
Unscripted Learning — $19,987 
Write Out Loud — $17,903 
SO SAY WE ALL — $16,145 
Backyard Renaissance — $15,378 
The Roustabouts — $13,953
Loud Fridge Theatre Group — $10,000 
Scripps Ranch Theatre — $10,000

Music 
La Jolla Music Society — $273,222 
San Diego Opera — $270,293 
San Diego Symphony — $268,412 
San Diego Youth Symphony and Conservatory — $142,080 
Mainly Mozart — $125,096 
Villa Musica — $94,563 
San Diego Children’s Choir — $69,937 
Guitars in the Classroom — $58,935 
Opera NEO — $56,518 
Arts Education Connection San Diego — $52,100 
Bach Collegium San Diego — $41,220 
La Jolla Symphony and Chorus — $45,566 
Youth Philharmonic Orchestra — $47,993 
Resounding Joy — $53,689 
San Diego Early Music Society — $38,930 
San Diego Master Chorale — $36,879 
Spreckels Organ Society — $36,687 
Art of Elan — $36,765 
Camarada — $27,692 
San Diego Gay Men’s Chorus — $29,497 
SACRA/PROFANA — $18,551 
Hausmann Quartet Foundation — $18,380 
San Diego Jazz Ventures — $11,052 
Music Company TMC — $13,254 
San Diego Young Artists Music Academy — $13,688 
Classics for Kids — $39,900 
Project [BLANK] — $15,966 
Westwind Brass — $10,000 
San Diego Chapter of Sweet Adelines International — $10,000 
Encore Vocal Ensemble — $10,000 
Choral Consortium of San Diego — $10,000

Dance 
transcenDANCE Youth Arts Project — $85,125 
City Ballet — $85,120 
San Diego Civic Youth Ballet — $71,799 
Culture Shock Dance Troupe — $68,066 
San Diego Ballet — $59,772 
The Rosin Box Project — $48,492 
Malashock Dance — $48,499 
Pacific Arts Movement — $48,301 
San Diego Dance Theater — $35,122 
DISCO RIOT — $28,242 
Tap Fever Studios — $21,411 
Mojalet Dance Collective — $17,421 
DanzArts — $10,000 
Wheelchair Dancers Organization — $10,000 
Southern California Ballet — $65,645

Media, Literary & Community Arts 
Media Arts Center San Diego — $106,963 
Voices of Our City Choir — $89,024 
San Diego Watercolor Society — $33,093 
Revision Project — $30,633 
San Diego Collaborative Arts Project — $23,213 
San Diego Writers Ink — $20,229 
Space 4 Art — $41,444 
SO SAY WE ALL — $16,145 
Vanguard Culture — $15,205*

Total FY26 OSP grants at risk: $9,589,606

*Vanguard Culture, the outlet for which this article’s author writes, is a current grant recipient.