Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2007. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
San Francisco Chronicle - Friday, June 29, 2007
Wyatt Buchanan, Chronicle Staff Writer, wbuchanan@sfchronicle.com
The Board of Supervisors' Budget and Finance Committee completed its yearly budget process with hugs and applause from the members of the public who stayed at City Hall into the night.
"I'm sitting here today very happy that -- while we have not been able to fund everything -- that the tide has turned and it is a different day in San Francisco," said Board President Aaron Peskin, who led hearings on the budget this week.
"A $6 billion budget is a sign that times are good and we can take care of issues that have been deferred and needs that have been unfulfilled since the (economic) downturn a half-dozen years ago," Peskin said.
The committee members trimmed just under $22 million from Mayor Gavin Newsom's initial proposal -- the largest amount ever cut, Peskin said -- though virtually all the departments participating in the hearings agreed to reductions without heated debate.
Newsom's proposal focused on four areas -- public safety, street improvements, homelessness and transportation -- and those remained relatively unchanged.
"Overall, the mayor's four main priorities were respected," said Newsom's spokesman Nathan Ballard. "Muni will be improved, more cops will hit the street, the potholes will get filled, and we'll establish a community justice center to deal with panhandling."
After trimming the $22 million from the mayor's budget proposal, the supervisors added back money for programs and projects they want to see funded. The committee fully restored $8 million in cuts to HIV/AIDS programs and services, spent an additional $2 million for environmental programs and added another $4.8 million on children's and family programs.
In all, with additional last-minute city revenues, the supervisors added $35 million in programs and services into the budget.
The biggest portion went for housing and homeless services, though, with $10 million set aside for affordable rental housing for families. That spending was central to a debate between Newsom and Supervisor Chris Daly that nearly turned the budget process into an acrimonious battle between the mayor and the board.
In his budget proposal, the mayor did not include $33 million the supervisors had sought for affordable housing, prompting Daly, who was the then-chairman of the budget committee, to introduce his own amendments to the mayor's plan.
Daly's amendments would have slashed $37 million from Newsom's plan -- for things like a police academy class, street and pothole repair and some of the mayor's other pet projects -- and instead fund affordable housing projects and HIV/AIDS services.
But Daly's heavy-handed tactic was too much for Peskin, who removed Daly from the budget committee and took over the process himself. The normal schedule of two weeks of hearings was cut to just one week, and the deliberations were almost congenial.
Several committee members thanked and praised Daly and his staff at the end of the hearing, though Daly himself was not present.
The budget plan next goes to the full Board of Supervisors on July 17 and then to the mayor for his signature.
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