Back in August, I wrote that state budget cuts and worse-than-expected property tax revenue would mean that “November will be marked by painful budget adjustments. Mark your calendars.” Those of you who did should not be surprised that financial fights have already started at City Hall, and they will only get worse.
The Board of Supervisors is currently debating whether and how to avoid 45 to 70 layoffs and hundreds of demotions and transfers of nursing assistants and clerks who are members of Service Employees International Union Local 1021. In June, Mistermayor and the SEIU agreed to delay further layoffs until mid-November and to support revenue measures on November’s ballot. The hope was that a new tax would bring in cash so the cuts could ultimately be avoided.
Of course, tax measures polled miserably so none actually made it to voters. Now, the SEIU and progressives on the board are looking for another source of money to prevent the planned cutbacks.
Recently we learned that The City can expect about $34 million from a federal government program to reimburse public hospitals for services, but the money has to go through the state, and no one is certain how long that will take. Supervisors Chris Daly and John Avalos are leading the charge to borrow against this promise of federal money to save SEIU jobs.
Plan A was to take a $7.5 million “loan” from The City’s general fund reserve to restore SEIU positions. That proposal failed before the Board of Supervisors last week because it did not have the requisite eight votes (supervisors Michela Alioto-Pier, Carmen Chu, Sean Elsbernd and Sophie Maxwell voted no).
Undeterred, Daly on Tuesday rolled out Plan B: Let’s take the $7.5 million from another pot of money already designated for the Department of Public Health. (The money is already appropriated to other public health salaries and benefits, a fact that didn’t seem to bother Plan B’s supporters.) This new proposal will be considered by the board’s Budget and Finance Committee next week. But because it also needs eight votes by the full board to pass, it will probably meet the same fate as Plan A.
Sure, one or more supervisors could change their vote and pass Plan B, but that’s unlikely given recent revenue revelations. In the days since Plan A failed, we have learned that property and payroll taxes have disappointed even our lowest expectations. The city controller’s quarterly budget report, released Monday, puts us at $45 million in the hole. (Report here in .pdf Download Q1 Status Report.)
Because we are bound by the City Charter to have a balanced budget, all departments are facing another round of cuts. To make matters worse, word from the state is that it’s short $6 billion for this fiscal year, which will likely affect local funding.
The current (and continuing) fight to save SEIU positions may be made even more fierce by the fact that elections for SEIU officials are set to take place in January, so the already-formidable union leadership has an incentive to demonstrate its mettle.
The Christmas tree is already up in Union Square, but the mood around City Hall is anything but festive.
You'd think that Supervisor Daly of District Fairfield would know by now that you can't continually rob Peter to pay Paul. The City has been doing it for years. We now have 1 city employee for every 30 residents and an overblown $6.6 Billion budget.
Posted by: Howard Epstein | November 19, 2009 at 17:17