Since taking office, we’ve worked to turn decades of failure and underinvestment around:

🔥 Preparing for Wildfires & Safe Neighborhoods — Expanded brush clearing and wildfire prevention, secured new night-flying helicopters and water tenders, and invested in retaining and equipping firefighters, paramedics, and sheriff’s deputies to keep our neighborhoods safe.

💩 Tackling the Tijuana Sewage Crisis & Protecting Clean Water — Declared a state of emergency, pioneered rapid air and water testing, distributed tens of thousands of air purifiers, and launched the push for a federal Superfund designation to unlock billions in cleanup funds.

🧠 Healthcare & Behavioral Health Access — Expanded affordable healthcare and addiction treatment with 24/7 mobile crisis teams and nearly 7,000 new treatment slots, while protecting Medi-Cal, food aid, and social workers from devastating federal cuts.

🏠 Housing, Homelessness & Family Stability — Tripled the pace of homebuilding and boosted affordable housing production by 500%, strengthened services that move families from shelters to stable homes, and expanded food assistance and childcare so parents can work and kids can thrive.

This progress is not enough, but it is real — and now it’s all at risk of disappearing.

Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” just passed in Congress, and the numbers are devastating: San Diego County stands to lose more than $300 million every year in federal funding.

You don’t find $300M in the couch cushions. You can’t just raise a fee here and cut a program there to make up this shortfall. That kind of hit requires a real plan, not wishful thinking.

Without action, it means:

• Cuts to wildfire preparedness and fire safety, leaving all of us at risk from devastating wildfires
• Thousands of families losing healthcare coverage → more families forced into ERs they can’t afford.
• $200M less in food aid → kids and seniors going hungry.
• Mental healthcare expansion stalled → fewer treatment slots, more people left on the streets or in jail.
• Millions slashed from homelessness programs → more families on the streets in our neighborhoods.
• 🚨 And a growing strain on first responders and hospitals — firefighters and nurses already warn they’re stretched thin. Cuts this deep mean more 911 calls without enough beds, more ER visits without enough staff, and more preventable crises landing on the frontlines.

How We Fight Back

We’ve already taken a first step by reforming outdated reserve policies, which frees up local dollars we can use as a bridge for the next year while we build a long-term plan.

Now, Supervisor Monica Montgomery Steppe and I are forming a Fiscal Sustainability Subcommittee to develop a Roadmap. Backed by healthcare leaders, firefighters, childcare, food insecurity, and housing advocate groups across San Diego, this committee will explore options to realistically:

• Shield essential services from federal cuts.
• Leverage local investments to unlock millions in federal or philanthropic dollars (as with Tijuana sewage).
• Prevent reckless across-the-board cuts and protect the progress we’ve made.

👉 Submit an  E-Comment today  urging the Board to create a Fiscal Sustainability Roadmap.

It takes 2 minutes — but your voice could make the difference between a plan to protect San Diegans and doing nothing. Because behind every budget line is a person:

• A grandmother who finally got Health Insurance she can afford
• A veteran who moved from the sidewalk into stable housing.
• A child who no longer breathes toxic air at recess.
• And a firefighter or nurse who shouldn’t be asked to carry the burden of broken policy alone.

We’ve made too much progress to go backwards. Now we need a plan to protect it.

👉 Submit your E-Comment here.