No New Revenue in San Francisco’s New Budget
Mayor Daniel Lurie just unveiled his budget proposal for the nearly $16 billion budget of the city of San Francisco. He was tasked with closing an $800 million deficit. He decided to do this by cutting the budget of nearly every single department in the city (excluding public safety, like the police department), instead of finding new revenue sources. Additionally, he is cutting funding to numerous nonprofits that do the actual work of helping vulnerable populations. Lurie’s priorities seem to be increasing the ability to arrest vulnerable people and decreasing the ability of the city to help them. Another thing that this budget does is set aside money to deal with corporate lawsuits against the city for making them pay what they owe in taxes. Lurie has the ability to pressure these corporations to drop the lawsuits, but he seems determined to let them raid city coffers. All in all, this is a very disappointing budget proposal.
We wouldn’t need to make so many tough decisions to cut various programs and services if Mayor Lurie only utilized untapped revenue sources. San Francisco has some of the most billionaires of any city in the world, and also some of the most egregious wealth inequality. Simply taxing billionaires and corporations a fraction of a percent of their wealth and revenue would be able to fund the city for years to come. Corporations have consistently stolen from the people of California, from Prop. 13 to Airbnb lawsuits. Mayor Lurie, and the rest of California, needs to stand up to corporate greed and help out the people suffering the most.
48hills
What the Lurie budget does—and doesn’t—offer
By Tim Redmond | 48hills | June 1st, 2025