Budget Fight Over Smaller Piece of the PiePaul Hogarthbyline‚ Jun. 12‚ 2008Forget what homeless advocates said at Tuesday’s City Hall hearing that the Mayor’s Community Justice Center is another “criminalization of poverty.” And forget the obvious political point that the CJC stalemate is a symptom of Gavin Newsom’s refusal to engage the legislative branch. What the Supervisors struggled with was more basic: why allocate $2.8 million a year for a new program – when the City may cut $20 million out of existing social programs, and we deal with a large revenue problem? The CJC is the most high-profile of Newsom’s new proposals that he wants to add during tough times, but his budget also proposes giving every new child born in San Francisco $500 – a “Baby Savings Account” that will cost $1.5 million. Is the budget crunch really time to axe old programs and replace them with new ones, or does it make more sense to pass revenue measures in November so that we don’t fight over crumbs? |