Supervisor Jake McGoldrick: Big Budget Cuts are Coming

As many of you know, San Francisco has been facing an increasingly-serious budget crisis over the last two years. Last May, we faced a budget shortfall of more than $352 million, which the mayor and the SF Board of Supervisors were able to close by a combination of consolidating and reorganizing departments, employee salary and benefit give-backs and a significant number of program cuts and employee lay-offs. Although I was proud that we were able to minimize the pain of the cuts, there was indeed pain. It was with this understanding that I reluctantly supported the mayor’s efforts to pass two taxes on last November’s ballot. The voters rejected both measures.

As a result, the City faces an immediate shortfall in projected revenue needed to keep the budget balanced for the remainder of this fiscal year and the problem only gets worse moving into the 2005-06 fiscal year.

What this means is that many of the painful cuts that the board was able to forestall in last June’s review of the mayor’s budget will now be back on the table. The mayor’s office has indicated his intention to make significant cuts in many programs, including labor standards enforcement, children’s programs, small business grants, recycling, fire suppression, homeless services, Muni, AIDS care, community health clinics, drug subsidies, sidewalk and street cleaning, pothole repairs and neighborhood recreation centers, among others. This likely will mean more litter on the streets, slower improvement with the homeless situation, higher Muni fares and slower service, higher costs for health care for the poor and the closing of recreation centers on certain days.

This time, it will not be possible to avoid sharing serious pain because the easy cuts that can be made have largely been done.

I have met with the mayor’s staff and have secured some agreements that provide at least a floor of protection for certain services as we move forward. No fire stations will be closed, although the mayor does plan to continue, and possibly even expand, the practice of “brown-outs,” where a truck or engine will be rotated out of service for a day. No Muni lines will be cut, but Muni likely will cut the number of buses running per day on each line, slowing down service. No recreation centers will be closed completely, but there will be certain days when individual centers are closed when a neighboring center is open. The department also is committed to preserving latchkey programs, if at all possible. Our hard-fought restoration of funding for neighborhood park capital improvements, such as Rossi Park, will not be affected by the budget cuts, a major victory. Beyond these items, the board’s Budget Committee will hold hearings beginning Dec. 2 on how these proposals will affect city residents.

I remain resolved as a member of the Budget Committee to do my best to avoid and lessen the pain of necessary budget cuts and my priorities remain as always – to support public health, public safety, public transportation, clean streets and programs for children and seniors.

But the stark reality is that these programs will be affected by budget cuts in the coming year. We are now looking at a projected $230 million shortfall in next year’s budget. And that assumes no further cuts by the state in funding for local programs. With no real reduction in the state’s structural budget deficit, despite voter approval of bonds last year to get us through that budget, it is very likely that the state will again shift its budget problem onto local governments as a way to balance its own budget. Such action will make our challenge even greater.

Now, more than ever, it is important that my office and that of other supervisors and the Mayor’s Budget Office hear from you about your policy priorities in this incredibly difficult budget situation. The feedback we all receive from you really will make a difference in deciding how to share the pain in the coming year. I believe we can all work together to get through these difficult challenges in a way that preserves and strengthens our communities.

Jake McGoldrick is a San Francisco supervisor representing District 1.