The two-year spending plan Lurie unveiled June 1 is being sold as a budget that "strengthens our social safety net." But the savings that balance it land disproportionately on the roughly 700 community nonprofits the city pays to serve its poorest residents — immigrants, seniors, people with disabilities, and communities of color. The political subtext is hard to miss: Lurie released the plan one day before voters decided Proposition D, the union-backed "Overpaid CEO tax" he opposes, and told reporters he would proceed with these cuts even if it passed. The result is a budget that protects the public payroll and uniformed first responders while exporting the pain to a contracted workforce that doesn't show up in the city's layoff count.

Mayor Daniel Lurie revealed Monday that he would close San Francisco's $642 million deficit not by culling the city workforce today, but by slowing hiring for years and eliminating positions the city had budgeted but never filled.

The proposal eliminates more than 400 vacant positions and cuts nine more jobs. Combined with the 127 layoffs Lurie handed out in the spring, that amounts to roughly 550 City Hall job cuts this budget season — but few new pink slips for the city's 34,000 current employees. "We didn't tell departments to do more with less," Lurie said in remarks livestreamed from the Human Services Agency's Mission District office. "We said, focus on what matters most to our recovery and deliver results."

Labor's largest city union welcomed the reprieve. "We are pleased and relieved to see that Mayor Lurie did not include further layoffs in the next fiscal year's budget," SEIU 1021 San Francisco Vice President Kristin Hardy said in a statement, per the San Francisco Standard.

Who actually absorbs the cuts

The layoffs didn't disappear — they moved off the city's books. To balance the budget, Lurie cut back City Hall grant funding to the nonprofits the city contracts to serve its poorest residents. Advocates said Monday the funding losses could produce as many as 1,050 layoffs among nonprofit service providers, according to the Standard.

The People's Budget Coalition, a collective of more than 150 community organizations that receive city grants, said that while Lurie restored some money, "most of the devastating cuts departments promised are preserved." Its statement was blunt: "Mayor Lurie says we need to make 'hard choices.' But balancing the budget on the backs of working-class residents has become too easy for this administration."

The whiplash is concrete at the neighborhood level. Gabriel Medina, executive director of La Raza Community Resource Center on Valencia Street, learned in February his organization would lose $660,000 in city grants; about half was restored in the proposed budget, the Standard reported — turning two anticipated layoffs into one. La Raza is among the groups the city relies on to connect monolingual Spanish speakers to Medi-Cal, CalFresh and emergency aid.

Protected: cops, firefighters, and a $100M raise tab

Some workers fared better than others. Police officers and firefighters were promised 14 percent raises after this year's contract negotiations — roughly $100 million over two years, per the Standard. Lurie's budget also increased funding for the police and fire departments. No cuts to sworn officers, deputies, or 911 dispatchers were proposed.

City unions opposed the vacancy cuts even before Monday. "Any cuts to that system will further strain city departments which are already understaffed," IFPTE Local 21's then-president Bianca Polovina told Mission Local in April.

The Prop. D timing

Lurie released the balanced plan one day before the June 2 primary, where voters weighed Proposition D, the "Overpaid CEO tax" backed by labor that could raise an estimated $300 million a year starting in 2028. Unions had hoped the city would lean on rainy-day reserves until that revenue arrived. Lurie — who opposes Prop. D — said he would move forward regardless. "We're going to be a city that spends what it has and not on future potential ballot measures," he said.

He also proposed drawing $100 million from Proposition C, the 2018 homelessness measure championed by Salesforce's Marc Benioff, into a new reserve for homelessness prevention and legal services. As the Standard noted, past efforts to redirect Prop. C money have drawn outcry from the Board of Supervisors and homeless advocates.

The reprieve may be temporary. Lurie's plan trims the projected five-year structural deficit from about $1 billion to roughly $700 million — meaning more cuts, or new revenue, are still coming. Budget and Appropriations Committee hearings begin June 10, with a final budget due in July. Budget Chair Connie Chan has already signaled the city has cut enough: "What you will end up with is just cuts and cuts and cuts."