San Francisco pulled in more tax money than had been expected, and lost less state funding than expected, giving the city a multimillion-dollar surplus for the year.
The report from the city controller’s office on Wednesday said the city will have a $21 million surplus, according to CBS 5 San Francisco. Mayoral spokesman Tony Winnicker said the report offered hope that the city could avoid budget cuts in the future.
Budget analysts are expecting more bad news from the state later this year that would affect the city, according to the San Francisco Examiner. Budget leaders in San Francisco estimated the city will be hit with a $400 million-plus budget deficit next year.
Supervisor John Avalos, who chairs the Board of Supervisors Budget Committee, said the surplus money should be used to help whittle down next year’s looming deficit.
“We are facing huge structural problems — cuts, layoffs and possible fee increases to close the budget deficit,” Avalos said. “We need to string together every cent we can to deal with that huge problem.”
San Francisco was forced to cut millions of dollars in spending and layoff workers in an effort to balance a $6.5 billion budget for this fiscal year, which began July 1. A new estimate on next year’s projected budget, determining whether the $400 million deficit estimate will increase or decrease, will be done in December.
