Thursday, December 11, 2008 under a bright blue high-noon sky whisped with clouds, rows of cardboard tombstones marched in protest across Civic Center Plaza’s green grass shouting, “Rest In Peace, Buster’s Place! R.I.P Diversion Programs! R.I.P. Mental Health Services! R.I.P. Laguna Honda Adult Day Care Center!” The New Orleans style Brass Liberation Orchestra’s tuba oom-pahed gaily. Later, speaker Jennifer Friedenbach called this a celebratory funeral for the scrooge-ish budget cuts to 80+ vital service programs. “We are getting together and fighting back!”

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This week’s Bay Guardian has run two good stories and an editorial on the recent budgetary goings-on:

Amanda Witherell and Sarah Phelan, paragons of the dying breed known as the “San Francisco journalist,” covered last Thursday’s mock funeral and what the budget cuts will mean for San Franciscans’ healthcare, and the political happenings (and posturing) at City Hall, respectively, here and here. Check them out.

From our excellent friends at Poor News Network’s PNN TV, coverage of last week’s anti-health-cut protest:

The Board of Supervisors’ Government Audit and Oversight Committee has postponed decision on Supervisor Peskin’s $123 million de-appropriation package until its first meeting of 2009. The Mayor has agreed to hold off cuts to community-based organizations until February. Everything’s still up in the air, but there’s way more than a fighting chance. Expect an explanation of just what in tarnation is going on later today. Please keep your eye on our regularly updated What’s to Be Done? entry.

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Below the fold is a list of the health-related programs that are to be cut by the Mayor’s second round of 2008-2009 Fiscal Year budget cuts. Some of these programs will close; others will just cut back services. You can also download an Excel spreadsheet (89.5kB) here.

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Below the fold, you’ll find some of our alternative suggestions for cuts to the budget. Manifestly, cutting healthcare for San Franciscans is not the only way to balance the budget. Here are some ways that outlays could be harmlessly trimmed. If you know of others, e-mail us at director@cohsf.org.

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In the US, we often think of the Government in terms of a legislative branch that makes our laws, a judicial branch that interprets those laws, and an executive branch that enforces them. At the end of the day, however, laws are just intentions and ideas if they don’t have some sort of substance to back them up. The resources that make up this substance are mostly determined through a government’s budget.

Unfortunately, for at least one person in San Francisco, the division of powers in the budget process is a little more confusing than it is for the legal process. In San Francisco, most people have considered the budget process has been fairly straight-forward for a good while: In May, the Mayor, as executive of the City, drafts a budget which she or he submits to the Board of Supervisors. The Board reviews that draft first in committee, and later in full before passing an amended version. The Mayor usually prepares the draft in private, without any public oversight. This Board review and amendment process is an important part of the process which allows the public to weigh in on budget priorities.

Over the past years, this has mostly worked out well. But in 2008, Mayor Newsom has introduced a legal novelty: He has begun using discretion that he believes is granted him under the City Charter to make the unilateral decision to withhold certain funding.

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Thursday, December 11, 2008

12:30 noon

Civic Center Plaza, Southwest Green

The Mayor is moving at lightning speed to implement brutal mid-year budget cuts, insisting that over a third of the $75 million budget deficit come from the health department.

Mayor Newsom is trying to balance the budget on the graves of the poor by compromising the health and well-being of poor and homeless people. He is attempting to fas-track his second round of budget cuts, while protecting the highest-paid positions in City government.

He is doing so without the participation of the legislative branch, killing off the long-standing tradition of community budget planning in San Francisco.

Slated for slashing or closure are over $16 million in health cuts, including Caduceus Outreach Services, SRO collaboratives, mental health treatment, senior programs, substance abuse treatment programs, health initiatives for poor communities, housing, and countless others.

Please join us in holding a mock funeral for the budgets of those programs that are being cut. We will hold the service on the lawn across from City Hall, and then have a procession to the Mayor’s Office to deliver a list of possible alternative cuts that would not jeopardize our healthcare system and people’s lives.

This even is brought to you by the Coalition on Homelessness, San Francisco, and is endorsed by the Coalition to Save Public Health. Please wear black. Lunch and tombstones will be provided. For more information, call 415.346.3740.

Bilingual Spanish-English Flyer for Distribution (PDF, 674 kB)

Every night they come for my sweet iron. How many drops can they take from me before I’m forced to flee my box?

Night time allows me no rest like it did before they introduced me to pain after sundown.

I roll and shake to get away and yet this family pursues me ‘til I’m exhausted and only the deepest of sleep will not allow them to waken me as they feed from my feeble proneness.

Look: The mothers and fathers have sent their sons and daughters out to bring back more of my life blood! This family will live long after I’ve died in my SRO, and the bedbugs will wait for the next tenant to bring more flavors we humans call a bed!