Controller: San Francisco faces revenue shortfall; board hears options including tourism district and accelerated capital spending

At a Committee of the Whole hearing on Oct. 21, 2008, Controller Ben Rosenfield and city officials told the San Francisco Board of Supervisors that the national financial crisis posed material risks to the city’s revenues and debt costs and outlined a set of short‑term and medium‑term responses.

Officials including Controller Rosenfield, the city’s chief economist Ted Egan, Public Finance Director Nadia Sasse, Treasurer Jose Cisneros and San Francisco Employees’ Retirement System Executive Director Claire Murphy described a range of scenarios and recommended actions that include accelerating public capital spending where feasible, forming a Tourism Improvement District (TID) to boost Moscone Center and hotel marketing, and temporarily easing small‑business fees.

Key findings and projections

- Ted Egan, the city’s chief economist, described several possible macro scenarios for the city, saying the most likely path was a U‑shaped national recession driven by a credit crunch that would reduce lending to businesses and slow construction and retail employment. “The next scenario and what I believe is the most likely scenario is what we might call a u shaped recession,” Egan said.

- Controller Ben Rosenfield told the board his…