#service-reduction

#service-reduction

"This administration has ground fair housing enforcement to a halt. Worse, they're picking and choosing which protected classes count."

Without the half-percent sales tax increase, which would generate an estimated $9 million per year for the city's general fund if voters approve it this November, Berkeley could face deeper cuts including shuttering a fire station, laying off police officers and reducing hours at city pools and recreation centers.

The U.S. Department of Justice reached a settlement in the lawsuit filed last April by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union and the American Library Association, agreeing to leave IMLS intact and allowing it to continue its work supporting libraries and museums across the country.

I was alarmed and made a point to the board that the review refers to Microsoft Copilot as being used to evaluate the returns. I don't think you can rely on artificial intelligence to do that. It's just wrong.

Understanding the difference in purpose Unlike private businesses, which exist to make a profit, public institutions are designed to create impact - especially social and economic outcomes that benefit everyone, not just paying customers. A public agency doesn't measure its success in revenue or margins, but in how much it improves lives, builds equity and maintains public trust. This doesn't mean budgets and spending don't matter - they absolutely do - but money is not the goal. It's the tool.

The High Court has ruled that a west London council acted unlawfully and failed an orphaned child by leaving him in squalid conditions in order to avoid the financial burden of taking him on as looked after. While the child lived with his sister, who was also a child, the case was bought on behalf of only one of them. As a result of these tenancy succession laws, the child became a trespasser in his own home.

Lurie says he will have to eliminate at least 500 San Francisco City Hall jobs. The Chronicle cites an email from Lurie's budget director Sophia Kittler in which she tells various City Hall departments that SF 'cannot afford to sustain current spending on personnel costs' and that 'meeting this target requires eliminating filled positions.'

The city can't afford to sustain current spending on personnel costs. Meeting this target requires eliminating filled positions.

My reforms changed the welfare system to make work pay and brought workless households to an all-time low. But because of the post-Covid collapse in vetting and rise of health-related welfare claims, millions of workers could take home more from welfare than wages after tax. This is an outrageous state of affairs. The system must stop writing off thousands every day and incentives to work need to be restored to end this ruinous waste of human potential.

"If we don't get what we need [in terms of extra government help] then a Section 114 Notice will come in, which is effective bankruptcy. We'd then get administrators come in, in effect - they'd then make a plan for where the money gets spent in Worcestershire. It would be a catastrophe. We're going to have to halt projects that were put into the budget by the previous administration, things that maybe were 'nice to have', but we can't afford them."