[from Chelsea Boilard, Coleman Budget Advocates 12/14/09]
Last Thursday, DCYF Director Maria Su gave a presentation at the Citizen’s Advisory Council meeting on the state of DCYF’s budget. She said that Mayor Newsom had asked departments to submit proposed mid-year cuts of 3.9% (amounting to $1 million for DCYF), and that while they found more than half of that amount in cost-savings that would not impact direct services, an additional $400,000 could come from family support services (still to be confirmed by the Mayor). Since the Mayor’s instructions said to bypass department commissions, proposed cuts from other departments are not yet public or available.
That’s only for this fiscal year, and experience with this administration should lead us to anticipate further mid-year cuts before June. Next fiscal year, the city is forecasting a $522 million deficit, and Mayor Newsom has instructed city departments to cut 30% of their general fund budgets (a year after his instructions to cut by 25%). For DCYF alone, that amounts to $11 million in reductions, including both General Fund and Children’s Fund reductions (and if property taxes continue to decline, that could increase). We have heard from multiple department heads that last year’s reductions already left city departments with bare bones and the $522 million question: What else can we cut?
But maybe that isn’t the right question.
How many years have struggling families, seniors, immigrants, homeless, people of color and low-income residents had the city budget balanced on their backs, at their expense? For how long has big business gotten incentives from City Hall while critical services for the working class of San Francisco– those who make the city’s economy run– are whittled away? When are our communities going to take a stand, and say, “Basta! Enough is enough!” and hold decision-makers (at the local and state levels) accountable to truly providing for all of the City’s residents?
We have a Mayor who refuses to engage in real conversation about progressive revenue, and tens of millions in property tax appeals, 80% of which are commercial properties. In a city which has prioritized the needs of downtown over its children and struggling families for years, there is no time like the present to take a stand. We are now hearing calls for hundreds and thousands of San Francisco residents to stand up, exhausted by years of being dismissed and discounted, but energized by the knowledge that they are not alone in their frustration and also not alone in their hope for a better city.
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