Take Action

This morning, April 15, 2025, the City of San Diego released their proposed budget for the 2026 fiscal year. The proposed $2.1 billion General Fund budget includes a more than $8 million reduction to the San Diego Public Library’s budget. 

If approved, the draft budget will close all San Diego Public Library locations on Sundays and Mondays starting July 1, 2025. These cuts reduce operating hours for the Library’s 37 branches while preserving programming and community resources during the proposed operating hours of Tuesday through Saturday.

Being this underfunded is not normal. It is not sustainable for the San Diego Public Library to continue serving its communities at the level expected by its patrons when the City slashes money from the Library budget year after year. [Read my full statement on the proposed budget].

We urge our city leaders to commit to building sustainable revenue streams that will safeguard the San Diego Public Library, a cornerstone of the City’s public services.

We need you to tell our city leaders how important libraries are to you, now more than ever. 

Thank you for taking action on behalf of our libraries.

Over the last twenty years, the San Diego Public Library has lost over $640M in City funding during the budgeting process.

In March 2025, Executive Order 14238 cut federal funds to public libraries across the U.S., including the San Diego Public Library. These funds support various programs for San Diegans, including youth training and career development, adult literacy programs, and entrepreneur and workforce development programs.

Additionally, the San Diego Public Library’s per-capita operating budget is less than 70 percent of the California state average, and well behind many of its urban library peers with a books, materials, and e‑resources budget of more than $7.4 million (in FY2025), San Diego County spends 3.5 times more on their library’s resources than the City of San Diego, SDPL’s security spending is larger than its materials budget, and the City’s Public Library Department has over $50 million in deferred maintenance issues and no maintenance budget to address them.