Should the proposed charter amendment be approved by the voters, in my opinion, it would not in and of itself affect the cost of government. The charter amendment makes changes to the City’s budget and financial processes which are likely to stabilize spending through requiring multi-year budgeting and financial planning.

The amendment makes four significant changes to the City’s financial processes and policies;

• Specifies a two-year (biennial) budget, replacing the current annual budget;
• Requires a five-year financial plan which forecasts revenues and expenses and summarizes expected public service levels and funding requirements for that period;
• Charges the Controller’s Office with proposing to the Mayor and Board of Supervisors financial policies addressing reserves, use of volatile revenues, debt, and financial measures in the case of disaster recovery. The City would be required to adopt budgets consistent with these policies once approved;
• Standardizes the processes and deadlines for the City to submit labor agreements for all public employee unions at May 15.

Overall, the proposed changes would cause the City to budget less in some years, and to fund the budget with reserved funds or new revenues in other years, but the total amount of City revenue or expenditure would not be directly affected.

On July 21, 2009 the Board of Supervisors voted 7 to 4 to place Proposition A on the ballot.

The Supervisors voted as follows:

Yes: Supervisors Avalos, Campos, Chiu, Dufty, Mar, Maxwell and Mirkarimi.

No: Supervisors Alioto-Pier, Chu, Daly and Elsbernd.