San Francisco supervisors today gave final approval to the city’s $6.6 billion budget, on a 9-2 vote.
Mayor Gavin Newsom’s office said following the vote that Newsom would likely sign the budget next week.
The second and final vote from the board came after supervisors and Newsom reached a deal earlier this month allowing millions more for the health and human services, recreation and park services, and homeless programs. Some supervisors had complained the mayor’s original budget disproportionately favored law enforcement.
Supervisor John Avalos, who chairs the Budget and Finance Committee, hailed the agreement today as “a landmark budget,” though he also said last week that he had mixed feelings about the agreement, which still resulted in steep cuts to some departments and hundreds of layoffs.
Also at today’s meeting, Board President David Chiu introduced legislation that would expand the prohibition against new head shops in the city, passed earlier this year for Haight Street, to include parts of Polk Street in Chiu’s district. The legislation excludes medical marijuana dispensaries.
Chiu said the Polk neighborhood “has seen a similar proliferation” of shops selling tobacco and marijuana smoking paraphernalia.
Chiu said the seven-block stretch from Post to California streets averages about one head shop per block.
Both Chiu’s legislation and the previous legislation, introduced by Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, said the proliferation of head shops contributed to safety issues, drug use and sales, loitering, littering and noise in the neighborhood.
