One of the more contentious elements of this year’s City Hall budget was resolved early Thursday after a day’s worth of negotiations that ended at 2 a.m.
Supervisors on the Budget and Appropriations Committee approved $15 million to prevent layoffs Mayor Daniel Lurie had proposed to plug a historic deficit of roughly $800 million.
The money will restore funding for about 57 positions, according to the mayor’s office, leaving approximately 40 jobs still on the chopping block. Lurie’s plan to slash 1,300 unfilled positions is still on the table, and the number may rise slightly.
“Passing this budget also required painful decisions that were, unfortunately, necessary to set up our entire city for success,” Lurie said in a statement Thursday, adding that his austerity measures will save the city around $300 million in successive budget years.
Thursday’s early-morning negotiations also preserved certain services:
- $6 million for a code enforcement program for SRO hotels
- $4.2 million for legal services
- $2.1 million for immigrant case management, and tenants rights education and counseling
- $1.5 million for Opportunities for All, a workforce program for youth and young adults
- $400,000 for worker rights enforcement and case referral
- $250,000 for senior services and food
If the remaining layoffs are approved, it will be the first time since the Great Recession that the city is forced to hand out pink slips. About 34,800 employees work for the city; the layoffs would represent less than half a percent of the total. Lurie’s plan to cut jobs faced pushback from unions, as well as from Supervisor Connie Chan.
In a statement, Chan said, “It is the Board of Supervisors’ intent to restore all the proposed layoffs and we provided necessary funding to do so, but we know the Executive Branch holds the spending authority and makes personnel decisions.”
Many of the reductions within Lurie’s $15.9 billion budget will come through a $185 million decrease in funding for contracts and nonprofits. The mayor has also set aside an emergency fund of $400 million in case President Donald Trump withholds federal money.
The Budget and Appropriations Committee also approved paid parking in Golden Gate Park, starting in 2027, in an effort to raise revenue.
Aside from the agreement over layoffs, the other controversial aspect of Thursday’s negotiations came during a debate over funds related to Our City, Our Home, also known as Proposition C. The money generated by the measure, aimed at tackling homelessness, comes from a tax imposed on businesses.
As part of his budget proposal, Lurie proposed diverting $88 million meant for housing and transitional-aged youth toward an expansion of shelter infrastructure. Lurie partially succeeded in this endeavor by diverting some Prop. C money toward his shelter effort.
During the negotiations, however, Supervisor Jackie Fielder criticized Lurie’s attempt to remove the Board of Supervisors’ supermajority protection on reallocating Prop. C funds.
The lawmakers ultimately agreed to allow Lurie to peel away up to $19 million of the homelessness funds without a supermajority vote, as long as it exceeds the projected revenue from the business tax, according to Chan, who chairs the Budget and Appropriations Committee.
The full Board of Supervisors will vote on the budget July 15.