With the Mayor’s 2004-05 budget due June 1, many constituencies are actively mobilizing against cuts and/or tax increases. But an attitude of budget unreality is dominating this process, and Supervisor Chris Daly and Coleman Youth Advocates seem to be alone in acknowledging the hard choices to come. The “Alice in Wonderland” approach of key city constituencies and political leaders was front and center on Thursday.
It began with the presentation by the Fire Department and its union. To his credit, prior to the hearing Controller Ed Harrington had the courage to issue a detailed report on millions of waste at the SFFD. Harrington found that the most cost- effective way to trim this waste is by closing fire stations, some of which receive only two calls a day.
But whereas New York City’s Mayor Blumberg could close fire stations, this has become a political impossibility in San Francisco. It would not matter if no calls were received at a station all year—the firefighters union would still insist that closure would bring death and destruction to nearby residents.
So even though evreybody knew that no stations would be closed, politicians could not miss the opportunity to grandstand on the issue. That’s why Chris Daly was absolutely right to criticize Tony Hall for showing up at the Committee hearing, speaking against the closures, and then leaving. It does not take much courage to oppose funding cuts without proposing alternatives for the city to address its $300 million deficit.
Daly is the only politician in memory who speaks the truth to a crowd he knows does not want to hear it. He told the predominately westside audience about the Association of Realtors mailing urging opposition to new taxes, and asked how we can close the deficit without raising revenue or cutting spending. The answer? It cannot be done
Mayor Newsom did not let the drama play out for very long-he quickly announced that he would not close any stations. This leaves on the table a potential savings of $56 million by increasing firefighter work weeks to 56 hours. The removal of fireboxes is also likely, given that 87% of the 22,000 calls last year were false alarms.
While the SFFD organized like mad for the hearing, the vast array of nonprofit organizations whose budgets are at risk due to the deficit were nowhere to be found. That left Coleman Youth Advocates, which takes no city money, to join Daly in urging Supervisors to recognize that there is a destructive human cost to perpetuating fire department bloat (Coleman Director Margaret Brodkin’s report on the budget fire fight will appear Monday in these pages)
Later on Thursday, SEIU held a 2000-person rally against the Mayor’s plans to repeat last year’s strategy of saving $40-60 million by the city not contributing 7.5% to worker’s pensions. Labor leaders then publicly announced that they were also seeking a 7.5 salary increase.
This negotiating position seems at odd with economic realities The membership of Local 250 and 790 have no doubt pressed their leaders to take a hard-line against the pension contribution cut, believing the best defense is a good offense. But starting at a place too far removed from the realm of the possible is not smart strategy. In fact, the unions unrealistic stance will make it easier for Newsom to look reasonable when he, as expected, continues to oppose any salary hikes and insists on the same pension deal as last year.
If labor wants salary hikes, they need to start building public support around winnable tax increase measures. The Republican-controlled Virginia legislature passed a budget this week that included tax increases, as well as a halt to plans to end the state’s vehicular license fee (aka the “car tax.”).
If Virgina Republicans can act responsibly, why can’t San Francisco Democrats? Our Mayor and many of the Supes remain afraid of proposing the tax increases necessary to close the deficit. Even our Governor has recently said he would not rule out new taxes, and most think the state deficit will be closed by a temporary income tax hike on the wealthy.
Have the district elected Supes begun to follow the go along to get along model of their citywide-elected predecessors? Daly is absolutely right-we need leaders willing to make hard choices, not those living in Fantasy Land.
