Mayor Lee’s budget to be formally unveiled today will top out at $7.9 billion for each of the next two fiscal years, and with increased taxes coming in, the mayor’s office is treating it like good times are here again. The mayor plans to add 850 workers, from police to nurses, and bulk up the city’s reserves, the Chronicle says [$]. Now, for the fine print [brackets mine]:
Still, the budget for fiscal 2013-14 is $300 million more than Lee originally planned for last year when he unveiled the city's first two-year budget. It does not include $4.4 billion in unfunded liabilities that the city is projected to owe for employee and retiree health care.
Only about $20 million has been set aside in a trust fund to cover those health care costs, [the mayor’s budget director Kate] Howard said.
