San Diego’s budget process is starting up again already. Here’s what each council member wants.

San Diego City Council members are proposing entry fees at Mission Bay Park, taxes on vacant storefronts, a rental-car tax and other new efforts to boost revenue as they continue an ongoing struggle with the city budget.

The cash-strapped city will also consider a new approach to spending taxpayer money called zero-based budgeting, with a particular focus on applying that approach to spending on homelessness and city streets.

The new ideas come just as debate begins on a new budget for the fiscal year that begins next July. The first public hearing about that budget is scheduled for Wednesday, and a five-year analysis of future revenues and expenses is set for release Friday.

The council struggled to close a roughly $350 million deficit last spring for the ongoing fiscal year with a variety of cuts, including to library hours, and with new revenues from things like fees to park in Balboa Park and doubling parking-meter rates.

San Diego was also facing a potential deficit of about $10 million during the fiscal year that ended in June.

That projected deficit — which could have eaten into the city’s $207 million reserve just when it’s become particularly crucial — was wiped out by a late spring surge in sales tax revenue and some lower-than-expected city expenses.

For the upcoming budget, council members recently submitted their priorities to the mayor and the city’s independent budget analyst. Several council members said more new revenue is crucial to covering city priorities.

Sean Elo-Rivera is proposing a vehicle entrance fee for Mission Bay Park that would be paid only by people living outside the city of San Diego.

“Mission Bay Park is the fourth-most visited municipal park in the United States and a wildly popular destination for visitors to San Diego from neighboring cities and tourists from across the country,” Elo-Rivera said in his budget memo. “It is time to ask those visitors to pay their fair share for the safety, maintenance and enhancement of the park.”

The entrance fee would be in lieu of a previous proposal to charge for parking in Mission Bay Park, where all parking is now free of charge.

But Elo-Rivera also wants to pursue a related proposal from last year to charge for parking in other lots at city beaches.

Both the Mission Bay Park entrance fee and paid parking in beach lots would require state Coastal Commission approval because they would affect public coastal access.

Council President Joe LaCava is also endorsing paid parking at beach lots, but with some conditions. City residents would get to visit for free, frequent users could get a “beachgoer badge,” and low-income people could get discounts.

LaCava also wants Mayor Todd Gloria’s staff to study parking programs in the cities of Del Mar, which charges $4 per hour and $20 per day, and Oceanside, which charges between $2 and $15 per hour depending on location.

Elo-Rivera also wants his colleagues to consider a new city rental-car tax. He wants city officials and the IBA to update estimates of what such a tax, which would be paid primarily by tourists, could raise.

“Tourists who choose to drive while visiting San Diego should pay their fair share for their wear and tear of city roads and public safety impacts,” Elo-Rivera said.

Councilmember Henry Foster proposes that San Diego impose financial penalties on the owners of properties with vacant storefronts, an idea that Elo-Rivera also endorsed.

“Vacant and abandoned property burdens neighborhoods with blight and the city with significant costs to mitigate harm,” Elo-Rivera said.

Elo-Rivera also recently proposed a June 2026 ballot measure that, if approved by voters, would impose a hefty new tax on most short-term vacation rentals and on mostly-unoccupied second homes that owners don’t rent out long-term.

Councilmember Marni von Wilpert focused her memo more on grants, urging the city to seek more of them.

“A recent audit showed that the city of San Diego ranks the lowest compared to other large California cities for grant aid per capita,” she said. “The city must prioritize the pursuit of grant opportunities to assist in the delivery of essential infrastructure and programs.”

Other council proposals to help balance the budget include Vivian Moreno proposing cuts to the city’s Communications Department and Elo-Rivera suggesting the city has too many middle managers.

“The city should re-examine and consider consolidating managerial positions in order to invest in the city’s workforce,” Elo-Rivera said.

Several council members also expressed support for zero-based budgeting, which Foster described as “a financial management approach in which every program and expenditure is justified from the ground up each fiscal year, instead of relying on historical spending.”

So instead of the usual process where officials tinker with last year’s budget to find savings, city officials would start from scratch in at least some departments.

“This ensures that all programs and expenditures are justified based on current priorities and expected outcomes,” said Foster, who serves as chair of the city’s Budget Committee. “The city should explore implementing zero-based budgeting as a pilot for some departments, including, but not limited to, Transportation and Homelessness Strategies and Solutions.”

Elo-Rivera agreed.

“Zero-based budgeting could allow for the opportunity to re-examine the purpose and goals of Homelessness Strategies and Solutions, and ensure that the department’s budget is funding the most effective solutions to homelessness within a constrained budget,” he said.

LaCava said he’s also open to zero-based budgeting.

“Our conversations must focus not on employees or positions but on programs to ensure they are meeting the expectations that inspired their formation,” he said. “Budget decisions must flow from the efficacy of programs.”

Lee said he liked the idea but wouldn’t suggest which departments should use it until January, when more information will be available about how many millions the city must cut.

Several council members said they also were reluctant to suggest cuts or changes in the new budget with so little information about how last year’s big moves by the city are faring so far during the new fiscal year.

“Without the latest data on property tax, sales tax, transient occupancy tax and other revenue sources, it is too soon to lay out specific spending priorities for the upcoming fiscal year,” Councilmember Stephen Whitburn said.

“With the economic uncertainty that the city continues to face, I believe it is important to take a reserved approach,” von Wilpert said.

In 2022, the council began issuing budget priority memos in both October and January — instead of just January — in an effort to have a greater influence on the proposed budget the mayor releases each April.

But this year, council members seem less enthusiastic about that change.

The council’s budget committee is scheduled to discuss the memos during a meeting that will begin at 9 a.m. Wednesday. The city’s Finance Department is scheduled to release its five-year financial outlook on Friday.