Pedestrians walk down a street in San Francisco, California.
Photographer: David Paul Morris / Bloomberg
Photographer: David Paul Morris / Bloomberg
San Francisco officials expect the budget deficit to reach $ 503 million within five years, saying it is unclear whether high-wage workers will return to the technology center after the coronavirus pandemic disappeared.
In a According to a report released by the city’s fiscal analysts, San Francisco predicted a $ 411 million gap in the next fiscal year. From June 2026 onwards, from June 2021, expenditure, driven by increases in salary and remuneration costs, will increase by 24%, and revenue will grow by only 15.5% during the same period. Meanwhile, city officials have largely depleted one-time resources to close the $ 1.5 billion budget gap over the past two years, the report said.
In addition, analysts expected that most of San Francisco’s revenue streams would push back to pre-pandemic levels in five years’ time, but they raised flags about the forecast for tourism, offices and small businesses. They noticed that tax revenues fell by more than 70% in the second quarter last year, compared to the same period in 2019 in the retail, hotel and business core in the city center. Unlike other communities, the city has seen virtually no increase in online sales, showing that San Franciscans have indeed temporarily moved away while working remotely.
‘While we hope that the economic consequences of COVID-19 will become less severe as the effects of vaccines continue and we reopen, we now still have to make difficult choices to ensure that we can provide the services that our residents depend on. to, ”Mayor London Breed said in a statement.
If people return to their offices after the outbreak, San Francisco will recover and return to normal, the report said. “On the other hand, if office renters and their employees decide that the cost benefits of extended work from home – or direct relocation – outweigh any loss of productivity, then expensive office and real estate markets like San Francisco will have an uncertain future. “