Saturday, May 22, 2004
Just back from the District 1 and 5 public meeting on the budget situation... whee. This budget is going to be the hardest one since world war 2, they said.
Why is that?
Seems like basically, it's the fact that SF employs so many people, and we have to take care of them, both benefits-wise and pension-wise. And healthcare costs are squeezing us. The other main issue is that the city invests money to make money to pay for stuff, and the market isn't producing like we'd hoped.
To take a big 'macro' swipe at this issue: we need to employee less people and pay them less. Over time, we have to get SF back to a 'normal' level of per capita spending/employment of city workers. Normal being defined by other cities in the country and world with similar situations. I'm trying to find some of those numbers now.
Also, while I believe Susan Leal, the City Treasurer probably did a good job of investing city dollars, I wonder if we couldn't get the city to invest more in SF real estate... the one thing we really control, and which seems to never go out of style.
Why is that?
Seems like basically, it's the fact that SF employs so many people, and we have to take care of them, both benefits-wise and pension-wise. And healthcare costs are squeezing us. The other main issue is that the city invests money to make money to pay for stuff, and the market isn't producing like we'd hoped.
To take a big 'macro' swipe at this issue: we need to employee less people and pay them less. Over time, we have to get SF back to a 'normal' level of per capita spending/employment of city workers. Normal being defined by other cities in the country and world with similar situations. I'm trying to find some of those numbers now.
Also, while I believe Susan Leal, the City Treasurer probably did a good job of investing city dollars, I wonder if we couldn't get the city to invest more in SF real estate... the one thing we really control, and which seems to never go out of style.
