Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2004. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
San Francisco Chronicle - December 15, 2004
Rachel Gordon at rgordon@sfchronicle.com.
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom had proposed eliminating or reducing dozens of city services to close a projected $97 million deficit the city faces over the next 18 months. On Tuesday, with the mayor's full endorsement, the Board of Supervisors voted to fully or partially restore a handful of them -- but not all.
Fueling the budget problem was the failure last month of two tax measures on the city ballot.
Money was found to keep all the funding intact for the Tom Waddell Health Center in the Civic Center area, a clinic well used by homeless patients. In addition, cuts to other neighborhood health centers and support services for people with HIV and AIDS will not be as deep as originally proposed.
Additional funding was found to pare back proposed reductions to the program that sends public health nurses into people's homes, and for the city's efforts to enforce San Francisco's new minimum wage law.
A drop-in center for homeless in the Tenderloin also won a reprieve. Still unclear, however, is who will run it. The Board of Supervisors voted 6-5 Tuesday in favor of allowing the current operator, Hospitality House, to keep the contract. Newsom wants to switch management to the Tenderloin AIDS Resource Center, which would tighten rules for the people who use the service.
"The whole problem has not been solved," said Supervisor Jake McGoldrick, who took the lead in brokering budgetary restorations with the Newsom administration. "But we're moving in the right direction."
The $6 million found to put back into the services was one of those a little-bit-here, a-little-bit-there efforts that city officials have become adapt at to keep popular programs from unraveling.
The plan calls for raising restaurant inspection fees, taking away free bottled water for city employees, placing a more stringent cap on overtime for administrative city employees, stepping up efforts to switch qualified needy residents from city aid to federal programs, delaying some equipment purchases and cutting public funding for San Francisco Convention & Visitors Bureau by 5 percent, or less than $600,000 over the next 1 1/2 years.
Supervisor Gerardo Sandoval, who chairs the board's Budget Committee, had pushed for far deeper cuts to the visitors bureau -- more than $3.6 million, or half the promotional organization's city funding -- but was met with a threat by the mayor to veto the measure and opposition from hospitality industry representatives, who said it would damage the city's tourist-based economy.
John Marks, who heads the San Francisco Convention & Visitors Bureau, said the 5 percent cut would still hurt but was something he could accept.
Sandoval's intent in taking aim at the visitors bureau, he said, was to get the business community to shoulder more of the financial burden in helping the cash-strapped city.
The unionized city workers, he noted, have agreed to give-backs to help balance the budget, and residents will see a reduction in city services -- from rotating closures of fire stations and recreation centers to fewer work crews to fill pot holes and sweep the streets -- that are set to start Jan. 15. He wants the business community, particularly large corporations, to pay more.
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