Citing SF's new “economic reality,” Breed demands drastic budget cuts
Cao Xueqin: Dream of the Red Chamber. Image by Wikimedia Commons
Concerned about backsliding revenue, San Francisco's mayor London Breed insists city departments cut $206 million in total ASAP. Breed adduces SF's looming $500 million deficit projected for 2025–2026, thanks in part to post-Covid metropolitan “doom loops.” Meanwhile, the city's depts scramble to consolidate resources and preserve core services. From the Daily Mail.
San Francisco's mayor has ordered city departments including police and public health to propose budget cuts of $206 million by next week in a desperate attempt to reverse the stricken city's 'doom loop' spiral into economic collapse.
Law enforcement budgets in the city, which is ravaged by homelessness, drugs and a downtown business exodus, face cuts of $27.6 million, while the public health department could lose a further $25.9 million, according to a DailyMail.com analysis.
The fire department must propose reductions of around $10.5 million to meet the mayor's demand, while city's crumbling Municipal Transport Agency must find savings of $15.5 million, a review of official figures suggests.
In a letter dated October 11, Mayor London Breed ordered departments to propose massive cuts to this year's budgets in order to prevent San Francisco reaching a $500 million deficit by 2025.
The radical cuts mark an embarrassing change of tack from Breed, who is now forced to tear up the record-breaking $14.6 billion annual budget she signed off just three months ago. Department heads across the city have until Thursday, October 26 to propose their cuts.
'We simply cannot wait until next year's budget process to begin to address our growing structural deficit, which at this time, we project to be least $500 million in Fiscal Year 2025-26 alone,' Breed wrote.
This article originally appeared in the Daily Mail. Read the whole thing here.
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