Budget committee review finds pandemic-era revenue swings and flags vacancies as oversight priority

The San Francisco County Budget and Appropriations Committee on May 4 heard the Budget Legislative Analyst’s (BLA) report on the performance of the city’s general fund and pledged tighter oversight of long‑standing vacant positions.

BLA presenter Dan Goucher told the committee that ‘‘general fund actual revenues in fiscal year 2020–21 were 5,700,000,000,’’ while actual expenditures were roughly $5,000,000,000, noting pandemic‑related declines in business and hotel tax revenues that were partially offset by stronger property tax receipts. The BLA recommended several policy options, including asking the controller to produce an annual report comparing year‑end actual revenues and expenditures to budgeted figures and requesting departments to report projected salary savings, current vacancy levels and reasons for vacancies during June budget hearings.

Chair Hillary Ronan said the committee must press departments for detailed, multi‑year explanations of vacancies. “This habit that we have as a city of using budgeted positions as a cash cow for departments is a problem,” Ronan said, adding she will ‘‘cut vacancies in the budget unless there is a very clear plan to hire those positions this fiscal year.’’

Michelle Eller Smyth of the Controller’s Office explained why two pandemic‑era reserves were set aside: an emergency grant disallowance reserve (initially $100 million) to guard against potential FEMA and other federal/state reimbursement disallowances, and a ‘‘fiscal cliff’’ reserve (about $294 million) to manage projected shortfalls after one‑time stimulus and other non‑recurring balances are spent. Smyth warned that FEMA audits of pandemic claims are likely to be slow and uncertain.

Committee members asked for more historical context and a deeper breakdown of the components of the fund balance; the BLA said underlying audited financial statements and the office’s six‑ and nine‑month reports can provide that context, and the BLA agreed to supply longer trend data on budget vs. actuals if available.

Following public comment urging clearer FTE accounting and retroactive analysis of how vacancy savings have been used, Chair Ronan moved to file the item; the committee’s roll call vote recorded five ayes.

What’s next: The BLA and controller’s office will be asked for additional historical comparisons, a clearer decomposition of year‑end fund balances and more granular vacancy histories to support June budget deliberations.