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ECONOMIC BOOM FOR WHOM??!

A summary of The People's Budget in San Francisco

By PNN Staff

For very low income, previously homeless people like myself who are going from welfare to work ­- there must be more WORK there to go to!! In other words there is a big push to get folks off of public aid but there is no talk about living wage jobs created in different fields which would provide long-term economic stability. That is one of many important components of The People¹s Budget ­- and I am one of the P-O-O-R people it would af-fectŠŠ Scott Clark PNN staff writer

San Francisco continues to enjoy a boom economy and a concurrent increase in poverty and alienation. As evictions and rents skyrocket, more and more people, particularly poor women with children, senior citizens, and people of color, are being forced out of the City or onto the streets. The number of homeless individuals is currently approximated at 14,000-16,000, an increase of about 2,000 from the pre-vious year. Welfare reform is pushing more people into a job market that offers fewer and fewer living wage jobs. Caught between low wages, shrinking social services and growing costs, many families find that they must make the agonizing choice between paying for rent, food, or shoes for their children. The disparate reali-ties based on gender, age, class, and color must be accounted for, and addressed by any humane society. The City of San Francisco must face these realities.

The People's Budget Collaborative is committed to advocating for and funding permanent solutions to poverty. Rather than continuing to increase the City's prudent reserve, it is, in fact, "prudent" to invest in long-term planning and programs. Funding prevention pays off: for example, it has been shown that for every $1 spent on substance abuse treatment, $7 is saved in social services, emergency room and criminal justice costs. The City can debate whether there is a budget surplus this year, but the truth is there are certainly enough resources in this wealthy City to take care of basic needs. The real question is how to prioritize expenditures so those basic human needs are met.

The City Charter mandates that department budget be based on achievement of mission. Yet currently, the Mayor ignores that mandate by directing departments to base proposed budgets on the previous year's budget, regardless of change in need. Some departments are able to get around the Mayor's mandate and receive additional funding without justifying their previous achievement of their mission (such as in 1999, when the Police Department obtained an increased budget even though crime had decreased). Others clearly in need of increased funding (such as the Department of Public Health) do not receive it and are forced to cut vital services.

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Still others are forced to sustain COLA's that came at the expense of overall de-partment budgets in 1999. The People's Budget Collaborative calls on the City to adhere to the Charter's mandate for mission-based budgeting, and to cease en-gaging in selective, shortsighted, and imprudent financial management.

In addition to reprioritizing General Fund expenditures, additional revenue must be obtained. We must stop excessive corporate subsidies that take desperately needed monies out of the City budget. In order to more fully address the current, and untenable, economic situation, we must hold corporations that receive tax subsidies and other financial assistance from the City accountable to their local job creation promises, and to corporate codes of community conduct and responsibility. We must refrain from giving tax subsidies and other financial assistance to compa-nies that engage in unfair labor practices against unions and workers. Corporate property must be assessed at an accurate level.

Permanent, living wage jobs (that include benefits) must be created by a coalition of organizations and experts representing the many low-income and disenfranchised communities in our midst. The People's Budget 2000 is a policy and fiscal alternative. It is, for the third year now, a radical rethinking and restructuring of San Francisco's budget priories.

The People's Budget was initiated in 1998 as an agenda for meeting the most essential needs of San Franciscans through a reprioritization of fiscal responsibilities. It was presented to the Board of Supervisors for action, and three votes were cast in favor of the City adopting the People's Budget. People's Budget 1999 then expanded and covered a wider array of issues critical to San Francisco's working class and low-income individuals. In 2000, still a time of growing inequality, the need to reassess the fiscal responsibilities of the City -- and recommit to meeting basic needs -- has never been greater.

In 1998, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors joined communities around the world by celebrating the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and adopting a resolution declaring San Francisco to be a Human Rights City. That resolution specifically supported Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states:

Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well being of himself [herself] and his [her] family, including food, clothing, housing, medical care, and necessary services.

Also in 1998, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors enacted a local ordinance supporting the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). Ratification of the international treaty, which every other indus-trialized country in the world has ratified, has long been stalled in the U.S. within the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. In passing the ordinance for local implemen-tation, San Francisco became the first U.S. city to challenge the U.S. to ratify the treaty.

For more information call: Riva Enteen, at (415) 285-1055

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THERAPY COSTS TOO MUCH!!!!
Dee Gray, M.S.W., M.F.C.   Licensed Therapist specializing in advocacy and crisis counseling. Mother, daughter and family counseling. Adoption and juvenile dependency. Literary and creative art counseling. Individual and group therapy. Sliding scale fee. (415) 541-5629.