Bay Area Reporter - August 7, 2008
Seth Hemmelgarn, s.hemmelgarn@ebar.com

Several HIV/AIDS organizations and their clients had expressed anguish over the last several months as severe cuts were proposed to help close a projected $338 million deficit.

Supervisor Chris Daly cast the lone no vote against the $6.5 billion spending plan. Rachel Redondiez, a legislative aide to Daly, said he felt a better job could have been done at restoring cuts.

Mid-year cuts are already expected, and the city will still need help to cover HIV/AIDS expenses for the full year.

The health department's total HIV/AIDS budget for 2008-09 is about $55.5 million, down from about $60.5 million last year.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) restored $4.8 million in Ryan White HIV/AIDS Treatment Modernization Act funding for San Francisco that was used to cover 2007-08 costs in the city. The city had loaned the AIDS office one-time emergency funding in anticipation of the stop-loss money from Pelosi. Part of the gap is due to the fact that the city can't loan the money this year.

According to a statement from her office, similar language that would restore $6.9 million for San Francisco is included in the federal 2008-09 labor-health and human services-education appropriations bill.

"Maintaining those funds will be a top priority for the speaker as the appropriations process moves forward," the statement said.

However, this year's bill has only gone through subcommittee so far, and the legislation may not be finalized before the new president takes office in late January, according to Pelosi's office.

Mike Smith, executive director of the AIDS Emergency Fund and president of the HIV/AIDS Providers Network, said HIV/AIDS agencies that get a general fund award from the city would only be funded through the first seven months of the fiscal year, which began July 1.

But there's hope Pelosi will be able to help fill the gap again this year. According to Gregg Sass, the health department's chief financial officer, even if the money doesn't come through, the city could still consider augmenting funds.

Jim Illig, the openly gay president of the city's health commission and director of government relations for Project Open Hand, said like other agencies, Project Open Hand hasn't received its award letter yet, but what "both the mayor and the Board of Supervisors has assured the HIV services community is that the money is there."

Supervisor Tom Ammiano said the health department will probably get some cuts, but "it's not clear yet any of them would impact AIDS [services]. Obviously it's going to require close watching, but I will do anything possible to stop any AIDS cuts. Considering most were restored, I don't see that on the radar."

Lee Jewell, a client and board member at Project Open Hand, as well as a member of the city's HIV Health Services Planning Council, said while budget cuts were being discussed this year he was "very concerned."

Jewell, 48, who said he has disabling AIDS, said he makes little from Social Security Disability Insurance.

"Project Open Hand is pretty much the only way I get the majority of my nutrition needs met," Jewell said. "They've tried everything possible to make sure that the cost of food and cuts they had to make haven't impacted clients, but they can only do so much."

As for the passage of the budget and what may still lie ahead, Jewell said the situation is "still very tenuous. It's a very scary time for all of us." He noted there are several organizations competing for general fund money, which makes up about a fourth of the health department's $1.6 billion budget, and he and other people with HIV/AIDS "are all very nervous."

"We have a lot of faith in the mayor and the Board of Supervisors that they will help us through this difficult time, and we're actually relying on them to help us," he said.

According to Tom DiSanto, who works in the budget and analysis division of the city controller's office, the board restorations are funded by reductions from within the health department, and from other departments, largely as a result of the recommendations made by the board's budget analyst.

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