Mayor Gavin Newsom
File photo by Luke Thomas
From the Mayor’s Office of Communications
April 15, 2008
Today, I submitted to the Board of Supervisors a Resolution declaring it to be official City policy that no new set-asides or other mandatory appropriations be added to the City Charter unless the measure also identifies or provides a specific, adequate new source of funds.
The impact of these set-asides has limited the ability of both the Mayor and Board of Supervisors to effectively respond to budget deficits, and has led to reductions in important public services due to the declining portion of the budget available for discretionary spending.
As a result of these budget set-asides, the Mayor and the Board of Supervisors only have discretion over approximately 39 percent of the General Fund portion of the annual budget and 18 percent of the overall City budget.
The proposed legislation would make it the official policy of the City and County of San Francisco that no new set-asides or other mandatory appropriations be added to the City Charter unless the measure also identifies or provides a specific, adequate new source of funds, thus returning greater capacity to the Mayor and the Board of Supervisors to carry out one of their most important functions – allocating the City’s limited resources so as best to serve the public interest.
The Hunger Site
April 16, 2008 at 6:13 am
Newsom’s tired schtick of turning everything into a war with the Board, and particularly Daly, is one of the reasons we have this budget deficit and is the direct cause of Newsom’s decision to cut services, raise costs for the programs most needed by most citizens, while insulating business from paying its fair share.
Newsom himself cowered before the firefighters union and backed the set-aside for fire stations costing $18 million more every year, although he authored the budget to cut back on the stations.
Deferred maintenance — from the Moscone Centers to the streets themselves — has become a lifestyle for a mayor who never had to earn his own way, and still expects someone else, or some other mayor, to foot the bill. Even his backers like the Gettys never earned their way — they just won the birth lottery. We’re the ones holding the empty bag and expected to make do.
This is another meaningless stunt by Newsom to obscure the fact that he himself ran up the city’s debts.
April 15, 2008 at 5:10 pm
I think the city voters and residents should decide how they want tax monies spent. In a democracy the people tell the government what to do. This is not a monarchist country Mr G C Newsom. Even though I know you wish it were.
April 15, 2008 at 3:12 pm
I could not agree more with the Mayor on this. Set-asides and ballot-box budgeting is a major reason we have a huge deficit now up in Sacramento. Why should we follow that poor example?
According to the San Francisco Examiner, “Nearly one-fourth of San Francisco’s discretionary funds are now ‘set aside’ in voter-mandated spending levels for parks, libraries and — as of November — Muni. There are also set-aside staffing minimums for city police and firefighters plus ongoing subsidies for the San Francisco Unified School District.”
It’s easy for voters to feel good this way but set-asides lock up millions of dollars in the general fund, in effect taking away the money from The City’s many other more-urgent needs.