Budget committee advances budget cuts, approves COP refunding and frees reserve funds for project labor agreement staffing

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors Budget & Appropriations Committee recessed on Aug. 19 after advancing a package of budget actions and accepting significant analyst recommendations ahead of final budget votes.

Chair Sandra Lee Feuer opened the rescheduled session by framing the week’s work as “focused on changes and reductions that the budget committee would like to make to department budgets,” and said her office had compiled an updated list of add-back requests totaling $364,000,000 in year one alongside a conservative spending plan to guide deliberations.

Office of Public Finance staff presented two linked proposals to authorize and appropriate refunding certificates of participation (COPs) of up to $97,500,000. Luke Brewer of the Office of Public Finance said the refundings identified in the office’s review could produce estimated gross general fund savings of approximately $13,800,000, with a net present-value savings in the range of $11.2 million (about 12% of the outstanding principal) if market conditions hold.

Brewer said the refundings would match the term of the original leases and that any projected savings must first be realized before being programmed into the budget. The committee voted to…