Catherwood LibraryILR School

Mayor Gavin Newsom unveiled a record $6.5 billion budget Monday that seeks to erase San Francisco's huge budget deficit by laying off scores of city workers, allowing hundreds of prisoners to complete their jail sentences at home and shuttering a homeless drop-in center in the gritty Tenderloin. Newsom's proposed budget eliminates 1,085 positions - including layoffs of about 450 actual workers - and imposes what he called "old-fashioned belt tightening," like cutting employees' cell phone use and restricting travel, in order to dig the city out of a $338 million deficit. But while Newsom has proposed slashing services in some areas, his budget for the 2008-2009 fiscal year calls for spending more in other areas, like hiring 150 new police officers next year, boosting funding for street repaving and creating job-training programs for at-risk youth.