San Francisco Board of Supervisors Votes to Use General Fund for Workers’ Comp Clinic

San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors has voted to override Mayor Gavin Newsom’s veto to spend $246,000 of the city’s general fund to pay for a city-run Ordinance appropriating $246,000 from the General Fund Reserve to the Human Resources Department to fund the Workers’ Compensation Clinic at San Francisco General Hospital for Fiscal Year 2007-2008. The Mayor vetoed the ordinance on March 28, 2008.

The Mayor indicated that not funding the clinic, which services city employees, from the general fund would have helped at a time when the city faces a projected $338.4 million deficit next fiscal year. “While the Workers’ Compensation Clinic provides quality services to its clients, this closure is one of the least disruptive cuts we can make … City employees will be able to access workers’ compensation-related services at eight other clinics throughout the city, which provide high quality care, and in fact, many already do.”

Newsome further added in his veto letter that the clinic is operating at a loss of more than $736,000 annually, which is subsidized by the city’s general fund. “To redirect funds to support this program would mean that the Department of Public Health would need to implement additional program cuts, cuts that will result in service reductions, layoffs or both.”

Source: Board of Supervisors