San Francisco’s Budget Proposal Would Reduce Health Services Funding

Today, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom (D) is releasing the city's proposed fiscal year 2009-2010 budget, which includes cuts to health services and other sectors, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.

The proposal strives to cut the city's current $6.6 billion budget by about $500 million before the next budget year begins on July 1.

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors will have one month to make changes to the proposed budget.

Health Cuts

The budget proposes to reduce funding for several health services, including:

• Drop-in centers for homeless populations;
• HIV/AIDS services;
• Hospital security and secretarial staff positions;
• Mental health programs;
• Nursing and certified nursing assistant positions;
• Jail health worker jobs; and
• Substance use services.

The mayor's budget proposal expects continued growth for Healthy San Francisco, a program that aims to provide health care access for all city residents.

Impact of State Budget Cuts

California's current budget strain has led Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) to propose cutting state funding for cities and counties, including $175.2 million from San Francisco.

Newsom said his budget proposal does not account for even half of the state's proposed cuts, which some officials expect to increase.

San Francisco might need to deepen its budget cuts to deal with the reduction in state funding, the Chronicle reports (Knight, San Francisco Chronicle, 6/1).