Mayor's two-year budget proposes $477M COVID recovery investments, new reserves and expanded non-police responses

The San Francisco Mayor's proposed budget for fiscal years 20212022 and 20222023, presented June 9 to the Board of Supervisors Budget & Appropriations Committee, would spend $13.1 billion in the first year and $12.8 billion in the second and directs $477 million over two years to COVID-19 response and recovery programs.

Ashley Grafenberger, the mayor's budget director, told the committee the plan closes an immediate $23 million shortfall and prioritizes food security, homeless services, behavioral health, nonprofit support, capital projects and affordable housing. Specific recovery items include $41 million for food security (including neighborhood feeding grants), roughly $20 million for targeted small business and workforce relief, $6 million for community resource hubs, $15 million for learning-loss recovery, and a two-year $4.6 million rental subsidy at Moscone to attract convention business. The budget maintains some pandemic-era health operations and funds staffing tied to rehousing people from shelter-in-place hotels.

Grafenberger said the plan supports non-law-enforcement responses to street crises, funding a mix of street wellness and crisis teams, an overdose-response team and additional behavioral-health response capacity; it would also add 10 new 311 call-taker positions and staff devoted to call diversion coordination.

Why it matters: the proposal depends heavily on temporary federal stimulus and FEMA reimbursements and creates two new reserves to manage that risk. The mayor's office proposes a $294 million "fiscal cliff" reserve and a $100 million reserve intended to cover federal or state disallowances related to FEMA claims.

Questions from supervisors focused on the choice to set aside a large fiscal-cliff reserve rather than immediately apply more of those funds to structural deficit reduction, and on the mix of funding for alternative-response teams versus sustaining police staffing. Grafenberger said the fiscal-cliff reserve addresses liabilities after the two-year budget window and that FEMA reimbursements and one-time federal stimulus underlie much of the two-year balance. She offered to supply detailed follow-ups on exact allocations and the planned timeline for new positions.

Public comment: callers and written commenters pressed the city to prioritize digital equity for residents without home internet, to fund 24-hour park restrooms, and to restore later SFMTA service hours to aid nightlife-related businesses and workers.

What happens next: the committee filed the hearing. Staff from the Mayor's Budget Office and individual departments will provide more detailed breakout tables at subsequent department hearings so supervisors can vet staffing, program design and reserve mechanics prior to adoption.