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Supervisors amend budget ordinance to protect Baby Prop C baseline and limit interest transfers
Summary
After hours of testimony from childcare providers and advocates, the committee approved Supervisor Myrna Melgar’s amendments to preserve a $300 million minimum balance for Baby Prop C and permit use of interest for two years only, forwarding the amended ordinance to the full Board with a positive recommendation.
The Budget & Appropriations Committee on June 20 advanced amended budget language to protect voter-approved early childhood funding known as Baby Prop C, after several hours of public comment from providers, parents and advocacy groups.
Supervisor Myrna Melgar introduced an amendment that raises the fund-balance minimum to $300,000,000 and limits the use of interest earnings for budget balancing to two years. "We've come to an agreement to preserve the fund balance as the advocates have been requesting, to 300,000,000, and then to use the interest for the next 2 years," Melgar told colleagues as she read the amendment into the record.
Why it mattered: Dozens of childcare providers, parents and nonprofit advocates urged supervisors not to tap Baby Prop C for general deficit relief. Speakers said prior diversions and long delays in program rollout had already strained services and that the city should not erode the fund’s long-term capacity to expand access and workforce supports.
Department response: Department of Early Childhood representatives said shifting certain facility costs into the Public Education Enrichment Fund (PEAF) as the BLA recommended would come at the cost of 53 infant/toddler slots next year because those PEAF resources were already programmed. One department representative described the proposed management-level position as essential for the grant-making and contracting infrastructure to implement an unprecedented program expansion.
Committee action: After extended discussion and public testimony, the committee approved Melgar’s amendments by roll call and forwarded the ordinance as amended to the full Board with a positive recommendation (4 ayes, Member Peskin absent). The amendments set a $300 million minimum balance and constrain interest use to two years, changes advocates had demanded during public comment.
What’s next: The amended ordinance will be considered by the full Board. Advocates and department staff said they expect to continue negotiations on program detail and implementation if the Board approves the change.
Sources: Committee hearing testimony from childcare providers, BLA recommendations, Supervisor Melgar’s amendment read into the record by the clerk.
