Mayor, Supervisors Offer Spending Proposals for Surplus
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom (D) has proposed allocating $51 million of a $137 million budget surplus for fiscal year 2006 to the Public Health Department, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
Along with other plans by the mayor and county Board of Supervisors, officials have proposed funding projects that would outspend the unexpected surplus by at least $76 million, according to the Chronicle (Matier, San Francisco Chronicle, 3/5).
City Hall must "avoid the million-here, million-there nibbling that [it] often follows in spending extra money," according to a Chronicle editorial. County supervisors should hold a meeting to "weigh the merits" of all spending ideas for the surplus, "check the money available and make its choices," the editorial continues, adding that the "hearings could clear the air" and allow the proposals to be "vetted carefully" (San Francisco Chronicle, 3/6).
In other San Francisco news, 25% of Latino residents, or about 21,000 people, are uninsured, according to the California Health Interview Survey 2003, the El Tecolote/New America Media reports.
The Mission District has a higher number of uninsured residents compared to other areas of San Francisco, according to Adrian Nunez, community relations manager at the San Francisco Health Plan.
Factors contributing to the high rate of uninsured include cost and lack of access to insurance and care (Bleam, El Tecolote/New America Media, 3/2).