Supes Aim for Driver’s Seat in Mid-Year CutsPaul Hogarthbyline‚ Dec. 15‚ 2008When Mayor Gavin Newsom addressed the Supervisors on December 9th about mid-year budget cuts, he offered few details and said there would be no supplemental de-appropriation – relegating the Board to being mere bystanders. The December 12th hearing at the Board’s Government Audit Committee tried to change that, as Supervisor Aaron Peskin proposed $8.5 million in cuts to the Opera, Police, Fire and Newsom’s press office. The story here isn’t that those affected by the Mayor’s health cuts got their chance to speak at a public forum. Nor was it just a remarkable dialogue about competing budget priorities – and the need to have “sliding-scale” cuts during hard economic times (adding teeth to the Mayor’s YouTube rhetoric about helping those “most in need.”) At this hearing, we got to learn more from Health Director Mitch Katz about what the Mayor’s cuts entail – with details that weren’t available at Newsom’s press conference. Away from the Mayor’s lofty talk about “mid-year solutions,” we got to learn the cold truth – and it’s these numbers that will guide us to an equitable solution. |