Budget Reflects SF Values

As the chair of the SF Board of Supervisors’ Budget Committee, I spent the month of June in meetings and hearings to review and amend the mayor’s proposed San Francisco city budget.

Throughout this process, I did a deep dive into departmental spending and scrutinized every budget to find areas of unnecessary or wasteful spending. At this point in time, San Francisco is facing the stark reality of a ballooning $1 billion budget deficit, and it is imperative that we look at our budget through the lens of that reality.

To this end, I was very clear and consistent in my instructions to our city departments. We must be very controlled in our budgeting and cut wasteful spending, invest in critical services and save for a rainy day. And while it was not perfect, the budget advanced by the Budget and Appropriations Committee to the full Board of Supervisors for approval saw historic cuts, totaling more than $95 million. We also restored almost $59 million to vital services and added approximately $36 million in savings to our reserves.

Through the Budget and Appropriations Committee process, we reversed nearly $59 million in cuts to critical programs serving children, youth, seniors, families and the most vulnerable. The restored funding will be reinvested in oral health for children, the Dream Keeper Initiative, funds supporting workers’ rights outreach and education for low-wage immigrant workers, public safety ambassadors, workforce development, tenant protections and emergency rental assistance, food security programs and access to neighborhood grocery stores, child care services for youth and our families, violence prevention programs, support for transitional aged youth, subsidies for vulnerable transgender individuals, and environmental justice initiatives.

These vital services support our most vulnerable residents, advance healthier communities, bolster public safety and help keep people housed. In addition, recognizing the City’s staffing shortages in key public safety departments, like the police department and 911 dispatchers, we did not make any cuts to and in fact, added funding for our front-line emergency responders, police, fire and 911 operators. I also am keenly aware that true public safety depends upon a comprehensive approach. We restored funds that were cut in the mayor’s proposed budget to the Office of Civic Engagement and Immigrant Affairs (OCEIA) for community ambassadors – expanding on critical partnerships for our emergency responders to help alleviate overworked officers.

Our city budget is also a statement of our values and, in these challenging economic times, a constant struggle between what is nice-to-have versus what is essential. While the Board restored much of what is essential, this budget still has too much of what is nice-to-have. We certainly worked to ensure that this budget includes vital services that are essential to protecting our most vulnerable residents and keeping San Francisco safe and clean, but to get to this point we had to concede to putting our limited resources to non-critical programs such as a downtown light show and free tourist parking.

In order to stave off draconian budget cuts in future years, we must start asking ourselves now whether these nice-to-have, but non-essential projects are the types of spending our departments focus on. My promise to you is that I will continue to do the hard work to support our residents, working families and the most vulnerable. I will fight on for a budget that every San Franciscan deserves.

Connie Chan represents District 1 on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. She can be reached at 415-554-7410 or chanstaff@sfgov.org.