Committee advances $9 million seed appropriation to begin implementing Free City College

The Budget & Finance Committee on Nov. 30 forwarded a $9 million supplemental appropriation that Supervisor Jane Kim proposed to seed a Free City College program, sending the measure to the full Board of Supervisors for action on Dec. 13.

Supervisor Kim recounted Prop W’s passage (≈62% approval on Nov. 8) and said the controller estimates roughly $14 million in transfer tax revenue will arrive between January and June, enough to fund a $9 million seed allocation. Kim said the supplemental would pay student tuition waivers and associated supports to allow City College of San Francisco to accept students for fall 2017 registration. "We expect to move through the remainder of the funding through the regular board budget process," she said, while asking the committee to authorize seed funding so the college can program its registration portal.

Chancellor Pamila Lam told the committee that implementing fee waivers and modifying registration portals requires about four to six weeks of programming and roughly two to three months of operational lead time; priority registration begins in late March. Lam estimated front‑end programming costs around $100,000 and initial staffing support roughly $200,000; the bulk of the $9 million would be passed through to students as fee waivers and for books, supplies and transportation.

The item prompted hours of public comment from labor unions, City College trustees and administrators, students, educators and community groups, who urged immediate seed funding to honor the voters’ mandate and to avoid missing registration deadlines. Supporters emphasized that Prop W campaign materials explicitly tied the transfer‑tax increase to Free City College and argued the city should deliver the program in fall 2017.

But members of the committee debated timing in the context of the broader city budget. Controller Ben Rosenfield explained the adopted budget had assumed a sales tax that failed (≈$37.5M of revenue that the city had reserved against), leaving a current‑year hole; Prop W adds an estimated $14M in current‑year revenue but the city faces additional obligations from other passed ballot measures (including a street‑tree baseline estimated at ~$13M). Melissa Whitehouse, the mayor’s budget director, warned that roughly $20M in homelessness services programmed in the budget were at risk if the city chooses to not reallocate reserves. Given the competing near‑term demands, some supervisors asked for the city’s rebalancing plan to be released before final action.

After debate over fiscal context and implementation timelines, the committee voted to send the supplemental to the full board on Dec. 13 without a committee recommendation so the new Board can consider it alongside updated budget projections.