After Mayor London Breed declined to carve out $100 million in her spending plan for reparations requested by a coalition of Asian American groups, four supervisors want to tap city reserves to fund the community’s ask.
The call for reparations stems from a resolution the city passed earlier this year to officially apologize to the Chinese community for past racist policies such as the Chinese Exclusion Act. But some political leaders and AAPI nonprofits said they want more than just an apology and urged the city to offer more than verbal consolation.
“We have to actually put our money where our mouth is,” Supervisor Aaron Peskin said. “Apologizing is easy, but paying for it is more difficult.”
The supervisors are asking for $118 million in two years to create the “API Equity Fund”—an $18 million increase from the original proposal by the API Council.
Under the plan being floated this week, the money will be used for, among other things, buying land and bankrolling construction projects, according to Supervisor Connie Chan, who introduced the ordinance.
San Francisco Supervisor Connie Chan speaks to members of the Asian and Pacific Islander community on Tuesday, June 14, 2021 to announce the proposed API Equity Fund at City Hall in San Francisco. | Brian Feulner for The Standard
Chan said the property purchases and investments for the AAPI nonprofits will allow them to “gain economic stability and remain rooted in the communities” they serve.
The proposed funding represents a one-time investment spread out over the next two years.
Supervisor Gordon Mar and Ahsha Safai—along with nonprofit leaders from the Chinese, Vietnamese, Filipino and Samoan communities—attended a rally Tuesday to voice support for the plan.
However, Breed opposed the method of tapping into the general reserve for the proposed funding, while emphasizing the current investment in the AAPI community has been “significant.”
“Using our reserve could jeopardize our city’s long-term fiscal health, especially with great uncertainties around our economy ahead,” Mason Lee, a spokesperson for Breed, said in a written statement.
Lee underlined that Breed’s budget decision is “fiscally responsible for all San Franciscans.”
Lee added that Breed’s budget has funded about $3.5 million of proposed services and community programs from API Council’s ask and another $3 million for the AAPI organizations outside of council’s list.
After its introduction Tuesday at the Board of Supervisors, the legislation will head to the budget subcommittee in July for discussion, amendment and initial decision. It will need six votes to pass the full board—or eight votes to override a mayoral veto.
The post $118M From City Reserves for Asian American Reparations? Four Supes Want It. Mayor Breed is Against it. appeared first on The Paloalto Digest.
