All city departments will be asked to cut another 30 percent from their budgets to cover a projected $522 million deficit the city will face next year, the mayor’s office said Thursday.
The supervisors had barely come up for air from last year’s $500 million deficit when Mayor Gavin Newsom again sounded the budget alarm on Thursday.
“It is staggering,” Newsom told KCBS’ Stan Bunger and Susan Leigh Taylor.
KCBS interviews Mayor Newsom
The mayor's focus on the budget comes after a notable absence from the press since dropping his bid to replace Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Newsom said he had spent that time working on the impending deficit.
Last year city departments were asked to cut as much as 25 percent to close the deficit. The initial request for across the board cuts was withdrawn and some departments suffered worse than others.
Newsom said the city has exhausted easy solutions and that this time around solving the budget crisis will require more creativity after five years of shortfalls.
Board of Supervisors President David Chu Chiu said preserving essential services would be the budget committee’s top priority.
“Unfortunately we’ve got to make some very, very difficult choices,” Chiu told KCBS’ Barbara Taylor after being briefed by the mayor’s budget director.
The supervisors and the mayor frequently disagreed over was essential during last year’s budget process. This week the supervisors endorsed a plan to preserve dozens of clerical and health care positions even though there is no money to pay for them.
KCBS' Barbara Taylor reports
(jro)
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