City arts, police dealt budget blows
July 22, 2009
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| Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, flanked by Senate Minority Leader Dennis Hollingsworth, R-Temecula, left, Assembly Minority Leader Sam Blakeslee, second from left, Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, second from right and Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, D-Los Angeles, discusses the budget compromise reached to resolve California's $26.3 billion budget deficit. (ASSOCIATED PRESS) |
SAN FRANCISCO — A half-million dollars was cut from city funding for three of San Francisco’s premier arts organizations and three high-ranking police positions were eliminated in last-minute hits Tuesday to Mayor Gavin Newsom’s proposed budget.
In a 6-5 vote, the board approved a 35 percent reduction to general-fund support for San Francisco’s opera, ballet and the American Conservatory Theater — totaling $510,006 — allocating the money instead to children’s services.
Supervisor Bevan Dufty, along with Supervisor Sophie Maxwell, opposed the cuts and praised the art institutions.
“There are other things that children need to make their lives whole. The arts are part of it,” Maxwell said. “You need to rethink about all of this.”
Dufty later introduced a measure that, if ultimately approved by the board, would restore the cut.
The board also restored a portion of the money Newsom trimmed from The City’s public-financing program, which provides candidates for supervisors or mayor with tax dollars to fund their campaigns, with police cuts. Supervisors put $500,000 back in the program by eliminating one deputy police chief and two police commanders.
The board also put $44 million from The City’s largest general-fund budgets — including police and fire — on reserve to act as political leverage to keep Newsom from subsequently cutting funding from the supervisors’ budget priorities.
Last month, Supervisor John Avalos led the board’s Budget and Finance Committee in cutting $44 million from the prosed spending plan.
The money was then used to restore cuts to health, substance abuse and recreation services, among others.
Although the mayor has promised he will not cut funding to those services without working with supervisors, some said Newsom’s word was not enough and supported putting the backup funding in reserve.
The board also voted to cut $1 million of hotel-tax revenue intended for convention facilities to put into the public-financing fund, but later put the money on reserve after concerns about the cut were raised.
After making their budget changes, supervisors adopted the $6.6 billion budget for the 2009-10 fiscal year in a 9-2 vote. Two of the mayor’s allies on the board voted against it, objecting to the politically charged changes.
Supervisor Sean Elsbernd, who voted against the budget along with Supervisor Carmen Chu, said he did not want to be associated with the changes that were “not grounded in fact” and made with “zero understanding of the implications.”
Newsom spokesman Nathan Ballard, however, said the mayor was “very pleased” with the approved fiscal plan, calling it “truly a collaborative budget.”
The board is scheduled to take a final vote on the budget Tuesday.
Balancing The City’s budget:
Supervisors tweak the proposed spending plan
Before approving Mayor Gavin Newsom’s proposed $6.6 billion budget, the Board of Supervisors made several changes and put money on reserve in case the mayor decides to reverse the changes. Funding was reduced for arts and police.
Among cuts approved by Board of Supervisors
$483,000
SFPD (deputy chief, two commanders)
$145,656
San Francisco Ballet
$241,850
San Francisco Opera
$122,500
American Conservatory Theater
Funding put on reserve
by Board of Supervisors
$1 million
Maintenance at convention facilities
$44 million
From the budgets of the Police, Public Health, Human Services, Fire, Sheriff, Management and City Administrator departments
jsabatini@sfexaminer.com
