Lurie proposed steep cuts to address the looming $782 million budget shortfall, as well as to bolster the city against the Trump administration’s threat to gut federal funding. That includes eliminating 1,400 city jobs — the vast majority of which currently sit vacant — and around $100 million in grants and other contracts.
While dozens of union members with SEIU Local 1021 and IFPTE Local 21 received layoff notices, not all city departments will see job cuts. Advocates noted that the proposal maintained funding for the city’s police, sheriff, fire, district attorney, public defender and emergency management.
“Some departments are getting increases, those are the SFPD and the sheriff’s office,” said Worley-Ziegmann. “Daniel Lurie has marked them out as essential services, completely ignoring the fact that people need to eat, people need housing, they do not need mass arrests and jails.”
Judy Sorros is a member of SEIU Local 1021 and has spent more than 19 years working for the city. But she was among those who received a layoff notice as a result of Lurie’s budget proposal, just weeks after she celebrated 20 years of the CityBuild program with the mayor and Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi.
“To the mayor: please, you celebrated us, please continue celebrating us by not cutting our program,” Sorros said. “In fact, we could probably use a little boost.”
Other organizers say the cuts could have “devastating” impacts on programs that address food and housing security, such as All My Usos, a nonprofit that provides community resources to San Francisco’s Pacific Islander community.
“You’re cutting the lifeline of many community members,” said Jessica Ponce, a program coordinator with All My Usos. “With these budget cuts, you’re cutting essential services and direct services, especially to families, and limiting their access to a better life.”
While Lurie’s proposed budget includes an additional $2.2 million to the Citywide Food Access Team, organizers say cuts elsewhere will trickle down and impact community-based organizations that partner with the city.
