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Pensions, infrastructure and public health trimmed in 3rd year of San Francisco deficits

City estimates that costs are rising three times faster than tax revenues
Police and firefighter unions will pay more out of pocket toward their pensions. Disease prevention programs and street beautification will be scaled back. At least $37 million in capital projects will be added to a growing deferred maintenance backlog. Hundreds of millions of dollars in cuts approved in July forestalled a fiscal day of reckoning for San Francisco, a city that for three years has, like hundreds of local governments across the country, struggled to stay solvent in response to a fluctuating tax base and rising labor costs. City staff estimate that costs are rising three times faster than tax revenues.

San Francisco abounds in digital open-government tools, though many appeal only to hackers

Digital tools aim at increasing access to government information
This story appeared in the fall print edition and was part of the Building a Better Budget package of stories.
Squeezed to the point of cutting vital social services and deferring maintenance, local governments and nonprofit groups are turning to the Internet and other digital tools to increase transparency. Perched on the edge of Silicon Valley, San Francisco can’t help but be a hotbed of this good-government “hactivism.”