SF’s deep state undermines calls to economize
Image by Wikimedia Commons
What $840 million deficit? Tasked with “painful decisions,” some SF department heads are simply ignoring the mayor’s directive to cut costs. SF Standard explores.
During his mostly cheery inauguration speech in January, Mayor Daniel Lurie shared some grim but unsurprising news.
City Hall’s finances are in the red. “Painful decisions” — as he put it — must be made.
Less than two months into his tenure, those words appear to have fallen flat with a significant swath of the city’s departments, which have been tasked with 15% reductions to fill an $840 million budget deficit — the largest in San Francisco’s history.
A whopping 22 city agencies submitted budget proposals to the mayor’s office that did not hit that benchmark. Some came close, while others proposed no cuts whatsoever. A handful — the sheriff’s, elections, and fire departments, along with the Asian Art Museum and public defender — are even asking for more money.
The proposals could portend a tug-of-war between the mayor’s office, led by an inexperienced politician urging fiscal responsibility, and the departments he oversees, which assert that they’re already working on threadbare budgets and can’t take any sizable cuts to staff or operations.
It isn’t uncommon for departments to shirk a mayor’s request for belt-tightening. But this time around, the sheer size of the deficit means that common bookkeeping strategies, like padding up the budget with reserves or unused funds from the previous year, won’t be enough to magically fill the hole.
Documents from a January all-hands meeting with department heads show that Lurie laid out his intention to “eliminate $1 billion in overspending” in the next three years. However, he instructed departments to maintain core services and to refrain from proposing “politically untenable” cuts.
A handful of city departments referenced the 15% reduction request before explaining their need to retain their funding — or asking for more.
The Sheriff’s Department wants nearly $30 million more, which would bring its yearly support from the city’s general fund to $283 million.
Like the sheriff, the San Francisco Fire Department wants more funding: $3.8 million for employee pay. It argues that instituting the 15% cuts would mean removing seven fire engines or six truck companies in a year — or cutting 23 daily, 12-hour ambulances from the 911 emergency system.
The public defender is asking for an additional $13.6 million, which would bring its support from the city to $70.3 million.
Other departments aren’t asking for more funding but say they cannot make significant trims.
The city attorney’s office proposed cutting $60,000 (a 0.16% reduction) from its budget.
The San Francisco Police Department is in a similar boat. It said it would trim $53,811 (0.008%) from its budget, stating in its submission that “after parsing by Fund Source and by types of expenses, truly discretionary expenses are nonexistent.
A portion of city departments did follow Lurie’s order to make cuts valued at 15%, including the Department of Emergency Management, human resources, the Department of Public Health, and Public Works.
Read the whole thing here.
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