San Francisco budget hearing: mayor proposes $13.7 billion two-year plan while controller warns of heavy risks

San Francisco's Budget and Appropriations Committee opened a multi-day review of the mayor's proposed two-year budget on Aug. 12, hearing a detailed overview from the mayor's acting budget director and an independent assessment from City Controller Ben Rosenfield.

The mayor's office presented a proposed two-year package that it said would balance through a mix of one-time solutions and policy actions, while protecting city jobs and targeting investments to homelessness, behavioral health and racial-equity programs. "The total size of the proposed budget is $13,700,000,000 in fiscal 22," Acting Budget Director Ashley Graffenburger told the committee. She said the plan relies in part on FEMA reimbursements and on the assumption that a business-tax ballot measure in November will unlock additional revenue.

The Controller's Office flagged the plan's uncertainties. Ben Rosenfield said the mayor's proposal rests on reasonable but highly uncertain assumptions about the shape of the pandemic recovery, continued FEMA reimbursement (roughly $236 million assumed in the first year) and negotiated labor concessions. "We believe that generally the proposed balanced budget relies on reasonable revenue assumptions, but they are highly uncertain," Rosenfield told the committee, urging active management and contingency planning.

Committee members pressed officials on the scenarios that would follow if those assumptions fail, and on the mayor's proposal to consolidate several reserve accounts into a single COVID response reserve. Graffenburger said consolidation requires different legal steps depending on the reserve and that, once consolidated, uses of the new reserve would be subject to a majority vote of the Board of Supervisors.

Department presentations followed the opening briefs. The Office of Community Investment and Infrastructure (OCII) reviewed its FY21 operating plan and a request to issue bonds to finance enforceable obligations; the committee voted to forward that item to the full Board with a positive recommendation. The City Controller, Human Rights Commission, Department on the Status of Women, Assessor-Recorder, Ethics Commission, Library and other departments each gave five-minute presentations that highlighted pandemic-driven program pivots, proposed reductions, and equity-focused investments.

Public commenters urged the Board not to balance the budget on the backs of frontline city workers and asked that critical legal services, immigrant rapid-response networks, housing and community-based organizations keep their funding. Several departmental leaders stressed that much of the mayor's proposed savings come from reduced capital projects or delayed hiring rather than from layoffs; chairs and supervisors signaled that the committee would follow up on specific programs in subsequent hearings.

The committee scheduled follow-up hearings and advanced a number of items to the full Board for final action. Next steps include additional departmental hearings and a coming review of revised estimates as new information on federal funding, tax measures and pandemic trajectories becomes available.