Departments ordered to budget in carbon footprint
By: Joshua Sabatini
Examiner Staff Writer
February 23, 2009
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| Mayor Gavin Newsom wants San Francisco departments to pay 13 percent of their air-travel costs to generate money for a carbon-offset fund to pay for local projects that would reduce emissions. (ASSOCIATED PRESS) |
SAN FRANCISCO — If city employees take to the friendly skies, their departments’ budgets are going to lose more than just airplane fare.
Mayor Gavin Newsom wants San Francisco departments to pay 13 percent of their air-travel costs to generate money for a plan he announced more than a year ago, a carbon-offset fund to pay for local projects that would reduce emissions. The idea is similar to what is commonly referred to as carbon credits.
Department heads were not only ordered by Newsom to submit by Friday proposed budgets identifying 25 percent in cuts, but for the first time to declare how much they plan to spend on air travel. They were also ordered to budget for 13 percent of air-travel cost.
The amount generated by the 13 percent fee would be socked away into the special carbon fund, overseen by the Department of the Environment, to fund a variety of projects that would reduce emissions.
It’s unknown how much money the 13 percent fee could generate. No one is exactly sure how many times a city employee flies in an airplane on taxpayers’ dime. In the past, city departments paid for air-travel costs from a lump “travel” budget item, which included the cost of hotels and per diem, among others. Departments budgeted this fiscal year a total of $2.5 million for travel costs, of which some fraction was spent on airfare. Municipal employees fly for such reasons as conferences, meetings, escorting mentally ill patients back to their hometown and meeting with potential witnesses.
“Typically, [city] employees fly to conferences and the like,” said Newsom’s spokesman Nathan Ballard.
The City won’t have a sense of how much the fee would generate until the budget proposals are reviewed, Ballard said.
Departments are being asked to cut costs as The City faces a $460 million budget deficit next fiscal year.
The 13 percent charge is seemingly also seems to be an effort to eliminate nonessential air travel.
“If the 13 percent charge causes departments to reconsider and reduce air-travel expenses, all the better,” Ballard said. “We expect that departments will budget only for what travel is absolutely necessary.”
Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, who sits on the Board of Supervisors’ Budget and Finance Committee, said it made sense to incorporate a greening category in the budget to mitigate carbon emissions.
“The jury is still out on the whole carbon-credit system,” said Mirkarimi. “Does it actually drive toward the ultimate goal of meaningfully reducing one’s impact on the environment, or is like going to confession and simply getting absolution for your green sins?”
Earth comes first
- Departments must contribute 13 percent of their air-travel costs to a carbon fund
- The fund would be overseen by the Environment Department
- Projects to be funded would include anything from biodiesel pumping machines to energy-efficiency work
- The fund could be established by the next fiscal year, which begins July 1
