Mayor Daniel Lurie’s budget heralds San Francisco rebirth

Daniel Lurie just delivered the unthinkable in San Francisco: A budget that avoids further layoffs — and gives a raise to emergency responders, especially police and firefighters.

As The California Post reported earlier this week, Lurie is delivering on promises of reform. The city’s finances are improving steadily, and San Francisco is investing in public safety — the key to attracting investment, helping small businesses, and protecting residential neighborhoods.

Police and firefighters will earn a raise of 14% over the next four years. That’s a major step froward after Lurie was forced to impose a hiring freeze last year. The freeze saved the city $130 million, the mayor said. 

It’s amazing how controlling spending leaves room for the things that matter most.

And it’s equally astonishing that a city as liberal — or left wing — as San Francisco is paying police more.

We’ve come a long way since the “summer of love” in 2020, when Black Lives Matter riots swept the nation, and Mayor London Breed promised to cut $120 million in spending on law enforcement, before changing her mind amid a rising crime wave.

One of the keys to saving money in San Fran: Cutting nonprofits out of city contracts. 

While there are exceptions, these “non-governmental organizations” (NGOs) frequently do little more than provide sheltered employment for political cronies, who are expected to turn out the vote at election time.

How did San Francisco turn things around?

Just a few years ago, the city squandered a COVID-era surplus based on “emergency” spending by the Biden administration.

There were deficits as far as the eye could see. 

Two things happened. One: The AI revolution brought new investment back to the Bay Area. The city itself had lost residents, and companies, in the pandemic — but not completely. And it remains an innovation hub.

Two: The voters elected Lurie over Breed. 

Breed was not as radical as her base, but often seemed to feel compelled to follow their lead. She was a weak leader who could not make a clean break with the policies that had failed the city.

So Lurie — a relative political outsider — stepped up. And he provided a new direction for the city — one that is still within its left-liberal political tradition, but which also recognizes that government has to deliver the basics.

Lurie is providing a model for LA, and other troubled big “blue” cities across the nation, to follow.

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