. >>> good morning, my name is kevin rivard, principal french hornist with the san francisco ballet and orchestra. i completed six seasons with both groups. i love living and working with san francisco because this city has a reputation for understanding the need for the arts in the community as well as the need to support its artists. our arts organizations including our theaters, museums, music and dance performance programs and more took significant cuts during tough years. and although we are grateful you have been steadily increasing fund the last few years, we are still way behind the funding levels from 10 years ago. grants from the arts alone is down 22% since 2004. we need to increase this funding so that our artists can continue to live here. recently one of our orchestra had an international position. candidates are one of the finest in the world. yet upon moving here he could hardly afford to rent a single room in the city. our city's arts organizations and its artists are not able to keep up with the incredibly high cost of living in san francisco. increased funding for gra