San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie revealed a record-breaking budget of nearly $17 billion that hands big raises to police and fire staff and avoids mass layoffs as the city faces long-term deficits in the hundreds of millions.
Lurie says his $16.9 billion two-year budget encourages the San Francisco comeback he’s often touted in public appearances and helps fix ongoing budget shortfalls, though a few hundred workers who rely on city funds may lose their jobs.
“I know these decisions have very real impacts. But if we fail to act now, our structural deficit will grow to $1 billion, and the difficult choices before us today will become even more painful and costly tomorrow,” Lurie said in prepared remarks Monday.
“You can feel the momentum. Jobs are up. Businesses are opening. Muni ridership has reached post-pandemic highs,” Lurie said.
City unions were bracing for layoffs after Lurie handed out pink slips to 127 city employees.
Nonprofit workers, meanwhile, are expecting as many as 1,000 job losses as the city pares back enormous nonprofit contracts that have amounted to more than $1.6 billion in recent years, the San Francisco Standard reported.
“We are pleased and relieved to see that Mayor Lurie did not include further layoffs in the next year’s fiscal budget. San Francisco is at a pivotal moment in its recovery, and we cannot afford to go backward,” SEIU 1021 Vice President Kristen Hardy told the San Francisco Standard.
Police and firefighters will get hefty raises from Lurie’s budget amounting to 14% over four years as part of a labor agreement hashed out last month.
Lurie said a hiring freeze implemented last year had saved the city $130 million.
The budget comes just ahead of a critical June 2 election with potentially big implications for the city economy.
San Francisco voters are set to decide on Prop. D, a divisive ballot measure labeled the “Overpaid executive tax” that would slap an additional gross receipts levy on businesses with a large disparity between the compensation of local workers and top execs.
Lurie and allies in the business community have fiercely opposed the measure, claiming it will drive companies out of town and hurt San Francisco’s economic comeback.
A similar measure passed in 2020 by huge margins, but the tax was quietly undercut in a subsequent tax reform effort as city leaders strained to lure big businesses back downtown.
Prop. D proponents, who include the city’s major unions, claim the tax would raise $250 million annually.
Lurie told reporters he would not update the budget if Prop D. passes, saying the city needs to tighten its belt.
