Facing $800M budget deficit, SF looks into city department expenses

San Francisco could soon face more budget cuts.

"We are about three quarters of the way into our fiscal year. We are taking a look into how we are doing in the year and how is our revenue coming in," said Michelle Allersma, director of Budget and Analysis in the controller's office.

San Francisco's current annual budget for 2023-2024 and 2024-2025 is $14.6 billion.

By Tuesday, the Allersma said the office will have a detailed report that will inform the mayor what steps to take.

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"We are looking the general fund and we are looking into all the tax revenue. So there is sales tax, hotel tax," said Allersma.

The controller's office is digging deeper into the expenses by every city department and the revenues coming in. One concern so far is office vacancies.

"We are definitely seeing not a lot of commercial buildings are selling. We are taking a hit in our real estate transfer tax," said Allersma.

Ahead of the latest budget review, Mayor Breed asked for city departments to make cuts for the next fiscal year.

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As the last controllers report looms today the Mayor's office said in part:

"The Mayor has asked Departments to proposed reductions of 10%, but that doesn't mean those will lead to cuts. She could choose to take all of their proposed reductions, or only part of them, or none at all."

One of those asked to make cuts was the sheriff's department.

"We don't have anything else to cut. We are already short-staffed. We have cut and we are proposing to cut a little bit of our overtime budget only as a part of that and we are looking at asking for more money," said San Francisco Sheriff Paul Miyamoto.

Sheriff Miyamoto is reporting a 36% increase in the jail population over the past year.

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"We need to deal with the increase in the population and the needs of that population. The transportation cost that are associated with moving people back and forth from our main jail out in San Bruno to the courts," said Sheriff Miyamoto.

By June 1, the mayor is set to submit a full proposal for the budget to the board of supervisors. Supervisor Rafael Mandelman is part of the city's budget and finance committee.

"We are in a rough place budgetary. We had to make pretty significant cuts last year and we are going to have to do that again this year," said Mandelman. "I'm concerned about basic services, public safety of course but I'm also concerned about housing. We have more than 10,000 people every night who used to be homeless and are now housed."

Full statement from the mayor's office:

"The Mayor's Budget will be submitted by the end of this month. Any new information provided by the Controller will be incorporated in that budget. To be clear, the Mayor has asked Departments to proposed reductions of 10%, but that doesn't mean those will lead to cuts. She could choose to take all of their proposed reductions, or only part of them, or none at all. And Departments can propose their reductions by finding other sources of revenue, like state and federal grants, to offset their costs.There is a lot of work that goes into balancing the budget, and the Mayor and her staff have been working on this for months. We will have more at the end of the month."

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