With the passing of President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” Voice of San Diego contributor Alan Berube breaks down San Diego’s share of winners and losers.
The winners: San Diego’s military community will see expanded benefits for housing and healthcare needs. The new law will also invest billions in shipbuilding that would largely benefit the city’s local defense industry. The roughly 10 percent of San Diego’s richest taxpayers will also get a large income boost from the bill.
(Many) losers: On the other end, low-income San Diegans face significant cuts to California’s Medicaid and food stamps. In San Diego County, roughly 880,000 residents are enrolled in Medi-Cal and more than 400,000 receive CalFresh assistance. The cuts will also be felt throughout nonprofit hospitals that provide low-income families care through Medi-Cal reimbursement, and over 2,300 grocery stores across the county that partner with CalFresh.
The bill also rolls back on clean energy initiatives that will send ripple effects across hundreds of cleantech companies and organizations in San Diego like SDG&E and Scripps Institution of Oceanography. EPA programs also face a stark reality – their impending termination will no longer provide opportunity to improve environmental quality in lower-income communities.
The county and local government will be left to grapple with the outcome of the bill on San Diegans and navigate an increasingly antagonistic relationship with Washington, D.C.
Introducing DC Explained: In this new monthly column, Alan Berube, senior vice president at the San Diego think tank Policy and Innovation Center (PIC), will explore and explain the impacts of the federal government’s decisions on San Diego’s economy, institutions and communities.
The Learning Curve: School Board Member Is Done
Cody Petterson poses at his home in La Jolla. / Photo by Brittany Cruz-Fejeran for Voice of San Diego
For the first time since Marne Foster’s plea deal resignation in 2016, San Diego Unified is set to have a one-term trustee. Current Board President Cody Petterson has decided not to run for reelection next year.
“It’s been an honor to serve,” he said.
At the root of his decision is a simple math problem: He said he routinely spent between 25 and 30 hours a week working on district business. But he gets a monthly stipend of $1,914.42 from San Diego Unified. So, as a single father of two children, he’s had to keep up with a full-time day job. That just wasn’t sustainable, Petterson said.
Still, despite his short tenure, he said he’s proud of what the board has accomplished. And he’s not done just yet. He still has another year and a half until his term is up.
Plus: The country’s second biggest teachers union is partnering with the biggest AI companies in the world to create a center to train teachers in AI use.
Recipe for a Civil War
An American Flag hangs on a tree a block away from Neil Good Day Center in the East Village on May 23, 2023. / Photo by Ariana Drehsler
So far, the Trump administration’s second term has been marked by a (not-so) subtle chipping away at staple elements of democracy, from teasing the overturn of term limits to sending missiles overseas without Congressional approval.
Some political scientists are worried. As part of our Public Matters partnership with KPBS and inewsource, KPBS reporter Amita Sharma sat down with UC San Diego political scientist Barbara Walter to talk about those fears particularly surrounding the collapse of the United States into a civil war. (Casual dinner table conversations, right?)
Walter shares that while we might be sliding in the wrong direction, this kind of democratic breakdown doesn’t seem to be an imminent threat as of right now.
Oops, We Goofed.
We were so excited about Politifest 2025 that we included the wrong link to buy tickets.
Don’t miss our first ever Solutions Showdown on Oct. 4, 2025. Hear from community leaders and cast your vote on which proposals you think could solve the biggest issues facing San Diego.
Save on tickets with early bird pricing (for real) here.
In Other News
- Recently elected Lemon Grove Councilmember and former Helix High School football coach Sitivi ‘Steve’ Faiai died Tuesday. (KPBS)
- After the city passed the nation’s first ban on digital-only coupons in April, it has decided to backtrack and relax those restrictions. (Union-Tribune)
- The Padres may be a bit of a let down this year but Manny Machado can usually give us something to smile about. The star slugger got his 2000th career hit against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Petco park Monday night. (KPBS)
The Morning Report was written by Jakob McWhinney, Mariana Martínez Barba and Tessa Balc. It was edited by Andrea Sanchez-Villafaña.