PNN Elder Scholar Deconstructs Budget Cuts!
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by Bruce Allison/PNN The mayor has found another loop-hole for the mid-season budget cuts. The smallest of the cuts is to the Mayor’s office which is a total of $541,870. The area that the mayor is using from the San Francisco City charter is 3.001. Basically, this says that the portion of the charter states that the mayor has “wide and varied powers”. The portion of the budget that will be hit the hardest is Public Health which will receive a 26 million dollar cut under the mayor’s new spending plan. Due to the hosing of the public a pandemic is possible due to the way officials are handling public finances. I guess all we can do is pray that doesn’t happen because nobody is working to prevent it. At this time there is also a lawsuit that may be held in the city for not holding a real public impact hearing, which usually occurs when there is a cut in Public Health. The last one was held at the department of public health which is a violation of the state law which governs Bealinson hearings. The hearings are supposed to be held in the County’s Board of supervisor’s chambers. Due to San Francisco city and county’s unique position the mayor has pulled a fast one. If it was held at the board of supervisor’s chambers then this most likely would not have occurred. Because the majority of the supervisors including an unlikely one (mayor’s appointee Alieto-Pier) would have voted against the cuts. Since the mayor knows that, he has used this loop-hole in the state law with assistance from the city attorney. With the present board there may not be a way to have this stopped, putting us all in danger. |