With a little over a month to go until Mayor-elect Daniel Lurie’s inauguration in San Francisco, the city already has a financial forecast that will test his administration.
The latest fiscal update released Tuesday presents a dire outlook for the city’s budget, punctuated by an $876 million deficit. Lurie took to social media to reassure voters they made the right vote for change.
"We cannot simply cut our way out of this crisis, nor can we balance it on the backs of working families," Lurie said in the social media video. "What I commit to you today is to be clear and transparent with you in the weeks and months about the priorities that we need to undertake, and that starts with prioritizing essential services and making sure that we don’t jeopardize our economic recovery."
Lurie said the city’s deficit a crisis, and he called it chronic and consistent. He said he plans to tackle it "head-on" with the following strategies: Grow and diversify the economy; prioritize investments toward a full economic recovery; and maintain essential services.
Just balancing the books locally, however, may not be enough. San Francisco may also be facing cuts in federal funding if President-elect Donald Trump follows thorugh on threats of withholding funds.
Trump's advisers reportedly are already discussing how to unilaterally withhold federal resources from Democratic-run cities that refuse to participate in deportations of undocumented immigrants.
San Francisco is a sanctuary city.
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The city relies on federal funding for transportation and housing. San francisco’s budget deficit could grow to $1 billion if the new administration withholds that federal funding.
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