San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie Plans to Cut 1,400 Jobs in City Budget Proposal

Updated 3:09 p.m. Friday

San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie plans to eliminate about 1,400 city jobs and strip about $100 million in grants and other contracts to balance the city’s budget, according to his nearly $16 billion spending proposal released Friday.

The cuts were anticipated as the city had projected a $782 million shortfall for the next two-year budget cycle, along with other looming funding threats from the White House.

“A crisis of this magnitude means we cannot avoid painful decisions, and I’m prepared to make them,” Lurie said in his address on Friday. “Here’s the bottom line: We have to stop spending more than we can afford. The era of soaring city budgets and deteriorating street conditions is over.”

Most of the jobs on the chopping block are currently vacant, according to the mayor’s office. Only about 100 positions are currently filled, and those include positions where employees are slated for retirement.

It’s not exactly clear which positions will be eliminated, but officials said vacant job cuts are spread across 40 departments, while filled positions to be cut will affect 17 departments

Most grant-making departments will face some level of reduction over the next two years, mayor’s office officials said.

Unions have already fired back.

“Layoffs are totally unnecessary. We can find the funds to save jobs and uphold San Francisco values,” Rudy Gonzalez, secretary-treasurer of the San Francisco Building & Construction Trades Council, said in a statement.

Organized labor representatives pointed to ongoing lawsuits from major tech companies like Google and Airbnb, claiming they were forced to overpay taxes, collectively seeking about $415 million back from the city.

“This is the budget that Airbnb wants. None of these job cuts should be on the table, but the mayor has decided that tax breaks for Airbnb are more important than public services,” Sarah Perez, a city employee and San Francisco vice president for the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers Local 21, said in a statement.

Perez added that “cutting public jobs often means handing over important work to for-profit companies, increasing costs and inviting corruption.”

While many departments will see their overall budgets shrink, the mayor’s office will see an increase. Officials said that’s due to previously negotiated wage hikes, not new positions.

“We are deeply disappointed that the mayor has chosen to cut crucial public services that San Francisco residents and small businesses rely on, rather than working with city workers on the pathway forward that we laid out five months ago,” SEIU 1021 President Theresa Rutherford said in a statement.

Lurie, a moderate Democrat, acknowledged that there would be tough budget decisions ahead in his inaugural address in January. Earlier this year, he directed each department to find up to 15% in spending reductions.

“As we get our fiscal house in order, we are revisiting contracts across city government and bringing grants back in line with pre-pandemic levels,” Lurie said. “These are the steps we must take to responsibly manage our budget, not just this year but for years to come.”

Members of the Board of Supervisors are now contending with the cuts.

“There are no good options, especially given the attacks and draconian cuts coming from the Trump administration, [which] certainly impact San Francisco,” said Supervisor Connie Chan, chair of the city’s Budget Committee.

But some departments were spared, including the district attorney’s and public defender’s offices. The Police Department, Fire Department and Sheriff’s Department will also not face dramatic cuts, along with 911 dispatchers.

Lurie’s proposal also sets aside $400 million in reserves to prepare for potential federal funding clawbacks.

“In the event that when we face federal cuts, particularly Medicaid, which we were anticipating, we can use that money to offset some of these cuts so that people can continue to have care,” Chan said. “This is really critical. People can die if they do not receive care. Now, will that be enough? No.”

The reserve includes $1 million for city attorney litigation efforts “as uncertainty around the federal and state budget processes threatens to undermine San Francisco’s communities and undo the city’s progress,” a budget memo reads.

San Francisco receives billions in federal funding in the two-year budget for programs including homeless services, housing and human services. The Trump administration has threatened to pull money from so-called sanctuary cities such as San Francisco, and the city is now on the hook to pay back $141 million in COVID-era federal disaster funding.

The mayor’s budget also allocates about $132 million in public facility maintenance, such as repairs for potholes, playground equipment, homeless shelters and fire stations.

Nearly two dozen technology improvement projects would get about $50 million earmarked, including efforts to upgrade the city’s street outreach client management tool, tax systems and a citywide data management system.

Next, the Budget and Legislative Analyst’s Office will review the budget, and the Board of Supervisors will hold hearings with city departments about the proposed cuts and can request amendments. The final budget is due at the end of June.