Budget Information Fiscal Year 2026-27

We are at a pivotal moment in which Controller reports project that the city’s budget trajectory is finally trending in a better direction. Unfortunately, we are also facing unprecedented attacks from the federal administration, which is threatening significant cuts to critical funding for healthcare, food programs, and housing.

This is why I have every intention to guide the city through another challenging year as the Budget Committee Chair. This year will be complicated by the fact that we will also be considering enterprise department budgets, including the Airport, SF Public Utilities Commission, and SF Municipal Transportation Agency among other departments that generate their own revenue.

Although the public facing fiscal year budget conversations at the Board of Supervisors begin in May this year, as Budget Chair, my team and I have already started the conversation with the Mayor’s Office. As we tackle the fiscal year of 2026-2027, I presented the following budget recommendations and priorities to Mayor Daniel Lurie and his team as they are putting together this year’s budget proposal. We will use these same guiding principles as we consider the budgets the administration presents to the Budget Committee:

Chop from the Top:

For the past few fiscal years, the city has hired managers at twice the rate of essential frontline workers. Before the city continues to reduce its workforce, the city should prioritize the elimination of vacant management positions and other vacant positions and reduce management positions accordingly.

Leverage Federal and State Grants and Funding:

The city needs to prioritize services and contracts that receive federal and state grants and maximize our reimbursement rate.

Review Contracts of $1 million or Less and Consolidate Processes:

The city should review and consolidate grant contracts that are $1 million or less to increase accountability, maximize performance and deliverables, and reduce administrative costs, and eliminate redundancies, while ensuring continued direct services.

Reduce Administrative Costs:

The city should immediately eliminate unused cell phone lines, re-evaluate and streamline existing lease agreements for all city departments, consolidate equipment contracts to reduce costs, and aim for efficiency and reduction for related administrative costs.

Invest in Oversight to Reduce Wasteful and Corrupt Spending

The city needs to continue investments in oversight bodies such as commissions, inspector generals, controller auditors, public integrity and whistleblower investigators to reduce corrupt and wasteful spendings as well as reduce the city’s liability.
Streamline Capital Improvement Projects:

The city should prioritize existing funding and staffing resources for shovel-ready and near-completion projects and streamline processes to tackle backlogged projects that are critical to public safety before launching new projects that are not design-ready.

Guiding Principles

During the budget process, as Budget Committee Chair, I will evaluate and prioritize the city’s budget based on the following:

  • Availability and capacity of city services serving immigrants, LGBTQ+ community, seniors and people with disabilities, children and youth, tenants and unhoused people, and working families. 
  • Collective fiscal impact of fee waivers and tax revenue suspensions on housing production, local business revitalization, and city services that are critical in delivering public safety. 
  • The utilization of debt and financing policies including but not limited to bonds, enhanced infrastructure finance districts, and certification of participation in correlation with the projection of economic growth for the city.

It has been a great honor to serve our city as your Budget Committee Chair, it is truly a job that I love deeply, even as it has been challenging both on a professional and personal level, to meet the diverse needs and urgent demands of a city with a wide range of political and ideological spectrums. This is also why I plan to step down as Committee Chair in August of 2026, after we complete this year’s budget process. In order for our city to continue to progress, my colleagues on the Board must take on new leadership roles on the committee and learn to make the difficult but critical choices needed to shape future budgets.

When they say a budget is a statement of values, it is doubly true for our $16 billion budget. I am very proud of all of us, all our mayors, board presidents, members on the Board of Supervisors, city department leaders, city workers, service providers, and stakeholders, for what we have accomplished to date. Thank you for trusting in me to be your Budget Committee Chair for the past three years. Now, let’s get to work.

 

Pending for Budget Hearing Calendar

Budget Related Documents and Presentations:

Additional Budget Resources: