Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the City Budget topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Mayor Newsom signs $6.6 billion budget after board restores health and human services funding
Summary
Mayor Gavin Newsom signed the FY 2009–10 city budget at a ceremony with the Board of Supervisors, highlighting preservation of public safety and health services after months of negotiations and add‑backs totaling tens of millions of dollars.
Mayor Gavin Newsom signed the city'and'county budget on the Board of Supervisors'dais after the board and the mayor reached compromises that restored funding for several social services programs and avoided layoffs for teachers, nurses, police and firefighters.
The budget the mayor signed allocates about $6.586 billion in city funds; officials said roughly $1.1 billion to $1.2 billion of that is discretionary. Newsom and board leaders said the city navigated a multihundred‑million dollar shortfall through midyear adjustments and a series of add‑backs negotiated with supervisors and department heads.
The budget process began more than a year earlier and included an $87.9 million midyear adjustment and multiple rounds of hearings this spring and summer. Newsom credited a collaborative process with the board, the budget office and the controller's office for holding the city's bond rating and avoiding layoffs in core services.
"We managed not to lay off any teachers, nurses, police officers or firefighters," Newsom said at the signing ceremony, adding the city held its general fund reserve and expanded several health programs. "We were able to do all that because we worked across our differences."
President of the Board David Chu and Budget Chair Supervisor John Avalos both praised the negotiations. Avalos, who led the board's budget committee, described the adopted budget as balancing painful choices while protecting vulnerable populations.
The mayor and the board acknowledged the state budget deal would impose additional obligations on the city, with the mayor estimating roughly $21 million in additional general fund impacts tied to the state action and an outstanding potential $35 million in health and human services reductions that may require further adjustments. Officials said they had set aside $18 million in the adopted budget as an unspecified reserve for state cuts and expected additional reports from the controller to refine the final numbers.
Mayor Newsom noted the budget work is ongoing and that the administration and board will continue to meet to close remaining gaps triggered by the state actions.
The mayor signed the budget at a public ceremony at City Hall attended by supervisors, departmental leaders, the city controller and the outgoing budget director, and he publicly thanked budget staff for their work during the fiscal crisis.
The budget signing concludes the board's final step in approving the document but does not end the city's fiscal work: supervisors and the mayor said they would continue to monitor state actions and would meet to address any additional shortfalls.
Ending: Officials said the city would publish final controller reports in the coming days with more precise discretionary totals and a detailed accounting of state impacts; they also warned the fiscal outlook would require continued attention during the coming year.
