“No cuts! No layoffs! No cuts! No layoffs! Defend! Public Services!”
Last week, Mayor Lurie released his highly anticipated budget. Facing an almost 800 million dollar budget deficit, he wants to cut almost 200 million dollars worth of contracts with non-profits over the next two years. He’s also proposing to eliminate almost 1400 city jobs.
“ I take no joy in this. And yet I was elected to make hard choices, and that is demonstrated in today's budget.”
Many of the proposed cuts are for positions that are already vacant. But about 100 city workers across 17 city departments will lose their jobs under the proposed budget. Here’s Osha Ashworth, with International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 6.
“ Reductions to the city workforce historically have either created longer times for completing work, cost more in overtime coverage, or ended up being contracted out due to a lack of an available workforce.”
Local union leaders say the budget could be balanced if big corporations like AirBnb were paying their fair share of taxes. The city is currently dealing with almost 400 million dollars worth of lawsuits over corporate back taxes. But at a press conference last week, Mayor Lurie expressed hesitation about going after big businesses.
“We want businesses here so that we can bring that tax revenue, and we can bring jobs back to San Francisco, and that is going very well.”
The Police Department, Sheriff’s office, Fire Department, District Attorney’s office, and Public Defender’s office, will all have their funding either maintained or increased.
The Board of Supervisors has until the end of July to review and approve the budget.
