by Marvin Ramírez
Interim San Francisco Mayor Edwin Lee talks wih a lady who explains to him how the budget cuts will affect her organization. (PHOTO BY MARVIN RAMIREZ)
As part of a series of district-based budget town hall meetings to take effect during the next months, Mayor Edwin M. Lee cohosted the first meeting in the Mission District with David Campos, a member of the Board of Supervisors, to educate the public about a projected $380-million budget shortfall for the fiscal year 2011-12, and to hear the public speak. Included in the meeting which was held at the Horace Mann Elementary School on March 23, were people from the community and members of non-profit organizations.
Imploring city officials not make any more cuts in essential social services, a couple hundred people, including members from different non-profit organizations attended the town hall meeting with hopes that the decision makers at City Hall would listen. They represented organizations serving the elderly, at-risk youth, domestic violence and others.
Recently appointed San Francisco Mayor Lee listened and took notes, while several city department heads shared the stage listening to the public outcry describing their particular situations into a microphone, explaining how the cuts would affect the services they provide.
“We have to plan for five years, instead of for one,” Lee said, in response to the economic crisis that is hitting every corner of San Francisco and the nation. The shortfall amount, however, could be less if the San Francisco Offi ce of Comptroller’s budget status report, which projects a General Fund balance of $89.2 million, is accurate.
“This strength versus the adopted budget is driven predominantly by a modest improvement in the City’s general tax revenues. Property transfer tax is significantly exceeding budgeted levels, driven by voter approval
of a rate increase in November 2010 that was not assumed in the budget. Property taxes and business taxes are also projected to exceed budget,” said a statement in the city’s website.
Peoples’ questions were answered by a corresponding department head, depending on the area of effect, who responded to the best of their ability, knowing that at the end, no one, the mayor, the Board of Supervisors or the department heads will be able to stop the avalanche of cuts that are coming, and unfortunately many services offered to the poor and needy will disappear.
The expectations from the people, however, after having been heard by those same city offi cials, who will likely be the ones to pull the plug on their organizations’ funding, are always greater than what can actually be accomplished. But they are just that -expectations.
“How can we work together to avoid these cuts that are going to affect the most vulnerable people?” asked a serious mayor, who probably can’t do much. Perhaps state and city offi cials should start changing the rules of the game with the Federal Reserve Bank: let the states run their finances the same way as the federal government – that is – with a deficit.
This is a question El Reportero will ask city officials soon, in addition to the question of why they shouldn’t support the dismantling of the Federal Reserve Bank and have the government print its own money, which would eventually eliminate all interest and the national debt. Currently, the Federal Reserve – a private bank – prints the money for the government and lends it out with interest.
