i appreciate the expenditure of time. i was impressed with the applicant, but those that were reappointing -- both those that were reappointing and the new ones. i really liked sandra and her background. another one, pascal, he also has a planning background. i thought both were great. i did have concerns. i will now be supporting -- not be supporting the standard oil. -- sandra boil. she had a very impressive real- estate and environmental background, but i think we need to find someone who actually works in environmental work, since we have only one position for that seat. but i was happy to see their real applications. i know that these individuals that reapply, they are very active in their districts and neighborhoods and i'm happy to see that they want to continue to serve. i will be supporting applicant seats won, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and eight, but not two. gregg's you bring to mind -- >> you bring up the point that this is an environmental position and she does not seem to have that background, so how did you select her

today, the expenditure totals 173. the full agreement is expected july 2012. there has been some discussion about what happens with the allocation, but in a way that signals fda's intent, they awarded $85 million to the project in fiscal year 2011- 2012, and that is the fiscal year that ends in september. the phase in which the final design is complete, and it is happening concurrent with construction. the first two packages the tunnels and stations are complete, and the systems package will be complete in made next month. construction, as i mentioned, is under way. the first contract is complete, and the second contract in the area of union square -- i'm sure you noticed the activity there. it is 85% complete. the tunnels contract -- the total board machines have already been awarded -- ordered. that contract was awarded in june of last year for $13 million below the engineer's estimate. it is, of course, a major project, which consists of 1.5 miles of tunnel from under the freeway. it has three separate notices to proceed. the first one was for the african m

it should never be based on prior expenditures that have already been incurred. the contingency is for something that may happen that was not anticipated, not on prior expenditures. our recommendation is, on these items, to reduce the contingency amounts to the calculation we made which is based on the prospective expenditures and to approve the resolutions as amended. supervisor chu: thank you. to be clear, with regards to your room addition for the contingency levels, it does not eliminate the contingency. it says for the contract that has already been incurred, you know what need a contingency for that. the going forward, we're still allowing that 12% contingency. >> that is absolutely correct. we're not questioning that the department to not have this flexibility in the contingency amount. you're totally correct. supervisor chu: thank you. i would like to go to public comment on these items, but i do have a question to the department with regards to contingency. let's open it up to public comment. if there are any members of the public who wish to speak on items

the board. and proposing a significant reduction in actual expenditures. fort overtime, we're partnering with the department of human resources to manage this. we will be bringing it to you sometime soon at -- with a joint third-party administrator. our program is separate from the rest of the city. sort of like combining forces. i think there's a lot of opportunity. at dpw, we were able to bring these costs down every year. most of the rest of the city, the costs are going down every year. at the mta, the costs are going up every year for workers' comp. we were able to identify some equipment eligible for capital funding. we were able to move that out of the operating budget. and we assume, because our budget had to be transmitted to you by may 1 before the labor negotiations were done, what we assumed in our budget that the board adopted was basically our opening position at the negotiating table, which between labor and benefits was roughly at 3% concession in the first year and the 3.3% concession on the second year. about half of our employees that hav

because of the horrors of nine eleven there's been this massive increase in u.s. arms expenditure huge increase and expansion of nato and from the lisbon treaty a huge requirement on all nato member states to spend a great deal on nato supplied arms yet at the same time the majority of nato countries there are involved in afghanistan have small numbers and always drawing it's going to be britain and the usa that's left there till the end i'm sorry during buys not through the military expenditure in europe is one hundred or nine it went down dramatically after twenty five percent your british. got about eight percent you know this is not unlikely her expenditure. when i'm sure we have the right story john before we go to the regular had it the united states accounts for about seventy five percent of nato nato is a military budget and they do united states for me and my taxpayers are the ones that are subsidizing european defense so again this is this is why european defense has been able to go down but the american empire the american national security state which is not good for u

the second item is on the expenditure side. this is a historical pattern for the department's or we have, for each of the last several years, started with the budget and then revised that budget as we moved through the year based on what our salary spending is the most years we have been able to cover the spending above the budget with medi-cal and patient revenues without actually dipping into a general fund. this year is it different, predominantly because of the major revenue shortfalls that came along with our expenditure increases. in the past we have had higher expenditures, but we have had higher revenue to cover the good of this year, we cannot cover them. if it was not for the shortfalls that we would not have had to reach into the general fund. the sources are three -- there is, as you said, $6.6 million drop from the state revenue loss reserve that was appropriated in the current year's budget. the remainder would be funded through department of public health revenues. the largest of which is the $67 million in revenu

that allowed us to follow through with the prop k expenditure plan and other plans. all those plans are now moving forward. commissioner avalos: thank you. any other comments? lastly, we are working in such a constrained environment. it is incredible the kind of thinking and strategy we have to build to be able to fund our projects across the region and in san francisco. i want to give you credit for that. there is also a huge fundamental problem in this country, i will say, about where we put our priorities. i wish we could rely on the federal government more than we are, but it has to be stated, there is a problem with priorities in this country in that we are not able to fund projects like this, and while there is a great boon that we can create for ourselves in terms of how we fund major projects, there are parts of san francisco that do not get service, just lousy service. that is my district. probably parts of district 10 as well. while we were able to fund these big projects, we have to figure out how to also make sure that we have a transit first policy extend

but one last topic which is the question of tax expenditures. and from the -- from your initial remarks, it seemed you didn't assign a enormous priority to limit tax venture and the whole debate about should you get rid of them? convert them into credit? how high should a priority should that be and what tax expenditures ought to be getting rid of? >> if you heard me that way, i misspoke. i -- >> or i misunderstood. >> i suggested that i did not believe that sparble base broadening done in a likely ways would produce a substantially simpler tax code. i do believe it would produce a substantially better tax code because it would be fairer and would avoid a variety of kinds of distortions that we have and i'm -- there's a place where marty and i would be in agreement. marty has put forth a variety of proposals the backup administration has put forward ones that are somewhat less ambitious than marty's that are directed at limiting the full use of all the existing deductions and i think the premise of both efforts is that political strategy that you

and reduce the expenditure but spend only what you need. that's what this amendment does. it's not a debate whether we should proceed with this or not. it's just we ought to spend the money wisely. and no more than necessary. next year, if they are able to solve the problems and the intervening year, we'll come back and continue to make money available for a continuation of the program. we're not talking about the sm3. we're talking about a different system here. we will take up the sm3 later. but this one isn't working well. we ought not put more money out there than necessary and save the necessary money -- the re maining money for those things necessary. now, those of us that are on this committee know there are other technologies that are being developed which may be successful. we don't know, but we're putting money into those technologies also, as we shaofplt we do need to protect ourselves. and in all probability it is not an icbm but rather some other mechanism delivering a nuclear weapon to our coast and exploding it. and that is in another different world. so i ju

, look at the limitation on the amount of money that we will spend, allowing us to take the unnecessary expenditure and spend it on something that we do need. with that, i yield back. >> gentleman yields back. the chair now yield to the gentleman from ohio, mr. turner, five minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i just want to -- to focus the debate on this particular amendment. on the fact that this, unlike the last discussion we had that was broad on our missile defense system. this is a relatively narrow amendment, on our ground based -- system. and the ground based system that we have is the only system that protects the intercontinental united states from icbms. the only one. portions have been tested and worked. and it, it absolutely -- is the system we rely on for existing threats and for the immediately emerging threats. to cut this system is to actually go to the heart, really, of, of our current capability. all the other systems, the aegis, xm-3, all the different misses people are referring to during these debates are either future missiles or missiles that do not have the capability of re

the expenditure test is more of a mathematical analysis of the amount of lobbying expenditures put forth by the organization as compared to its total to exempt purpose expenditures. and in order to avail oneself of the expenditure to as the organization has to elect that on a form 5768, and that stays in effect until that election is revoked. the important point here is if the organization is involved in substantial lobbying activity it could jeopardize the sense status and could result in some excise taxes. let's talk a little bit about political activity. if you get -- if you look at the handout in italics at the end of that section is says absolute prohibition with an exclamation point. organizations that are exempt under 501(c)3 of the internal revenue code and that, again, includes charges and reserve organizations, absolutely prohibited from engaging in any political activity. if the organization engages in political activity it puts its exempt status in jeopardy and, again, there are some excise taxes that might be associated with that. >> do you mean partisan political activity.

, unfortunately. 3% on the revenue side on average, 4% with operating expenditures. this resulted in two problems. operating budget deficits that we were facing to avoid blowing into a fund balance and declining resources for the capital budget. as you may recall, this last plan ended the projected period where the capital budget is as low as $8.3 million. the revised financial forecast actually reflects much of the same trends we saw in the last update. we have growing operating expenditures that are similar in size. we also see budget deficits in the same year, years three through five, and declining capital resources allocated -- allocated to capital. the prior forecast ended with 8.3. this projection ends with $8.6 million. we see those similar trends in the forecast. this forecast does show some changes, notably, much improved revenue projections. we also see within the forecast we have met many substantial one-time needs associated with the america's cup project, we have been able to support our c.o.p. obligation, and we have made some really great investments

that means some of the expenditures that had been counted on in the proposed budget have to be expanded at a higher level. the budget in main proposes additional cuts, several billion dollars, and most of those, assuming that the tax initiative passes, fall outside of k12 education curio. although some of them will affect all lot of our families, they do not to directly hit k12 for the most part. the governor is proposing and is counting on, this is a continuation of information you have heard before, in november ballot measure to increase income tax and sales tax. as you all know, this has been merged with what had been previously called the millionaires' tax. the proponents of the millionaires' tax have combined forces with the government and now there is a single measure that is proposed by both of those groups of advocates, and that includes an increase on the income tax. they would still affect individuals earning more than $250,000 and a tax would be graduated. i think it would be a maximum increase at those levels, above those levels, of 3% additional. on the sales tax, there is

attached in the committee package are detailed budgets for the expenditures for dpw and mta. agencies are splitting the available funds equally. and he proposes to use $453,912 for bicycle education programs as well as bicycle facility engineering, implementation, and maintenance -- means. dpw proposes to use $226,956 to repair public sidewalks. the remaining $226,956 will be used for preliminary engineering, planning and design of curb ramps at various sites selected from a list developed by dpw in conjunction with the mayor's office of disability. programs designed with these grant funds will be constructed in fiscal years 2013-2014 using funds from prop k, the local have since sales tax measure to the metropolitan transportation commission does not require that counties provide local matching funds for this grant. we had mta and dpw programs that here that would be happy to answer questions from the board. supervisor avalos: thank you for your presentation. i see others coming in. a question about the bicycle safety outreach and education programs. how are those conducted?

and eliminate some of the public health provisions that really -- and expenditures that can make the biggest impact in the way we actually help people with chronic diseases and help prevent people from getting sicker. before we close this part and we'll have a chance for rebeauty al, i know, i did want to yield three minutes to my colleague, and ranking member of this committee, chris van holland. >> thank you -- i thank the gentle lady, and i want to thank you and ms. wasserman schultz for offering this amendment. and i think we've heard the case very clearly for why this prevention fund is so important. i just want to emphasize one point, which is that this motion doesn't add one penny to the deficit. what my colleagues are proposing is that instead of cutting 100% of the prevention funds that are used for the kind of cancer screening and other health prevention efforts that we've heard about, that we instead pay for those by closing down a lot of these tax loopholes that actually reward american corporations that ship jobs overseas. i heard our friend from texas, the republican ge

come up with $4 million but the tobacco industry has spent $40 million and by the time is over the expenditure between 80 and $100 million. >>> prod 29 opponents as the tobacco taxes and i needed there are billions spent on tobacco research by the national institute of health. >>> mind-boggling $100 million spent on one tax measure. >>> anti-war activist in berkeley shows support for their allies in chicago who are protesting outside nato meetings. the occupy the bridge and occupy nato protesters began this morning unfurling banners over interstate 80. the call for peace around the world. >>> this is a never ending war we must and war as a foreign- policy tool under with people we've been trying this for years >>> if other demonstrators greeted world leaders at the nato summit in chicago this is the second day of meetings, karen brown shows as their goal was scored an exit strategy for the war in afghanistan >>> anti-war protesters marched in chicago, to the convention center where were leaders opened the today nato summit president obama says the focus on winding down the war in afghanistan,

supervisor wiener: the building has been purchased and it's about spending money and it would prohibit the expenditure of money to effectuate the actual move and improvements of the building. i don't understand why we would not oppose it. i think it would send an odd message if san francisco were not in opposition to this bill. >> we do say mtc will be moving to the process and will probably be in the building before this bill gets through the process. supervisor wiener: the bill could be moot because the audit will be complete in the next few months, but it is still a very concerning bill. it is not a pro-san francisco bill. the senator -- we are working with him on a number of things and he's a terrific senator. but on this particular issue, i do not think san francisco is on the same page as the senator. >> we had it as watch because it is a policy called. we want to send a strong message to the senator or see if it just fade away. supervisor wiener: my personal view is that we should switch it to oppose. supervisor mar: i support opposing it as well. supervisor wiener: i'm sorry i interrupted you.

-- the voters are for expenditures and economy. they are always for the general economy and specific expenditures. yes, we have to cut, but there is an exception that does affect me. what surprised me politically was john boehner going public. this was a scalding mud for the republicans, and they have not recovered in the public opinion polls since last summer, when they took the hit for the deadlock and the united states losing the credit rating. i am surprised he would even mention this. he is too good a politician and too smart and savvy going into a campaign to try to raise this again. it is a real problem for him. >> is the country in danger of another downgrade this summer, charles? >> no, but if we reelect obama, we will have a downgrade, something like the fal -- default -- probably not a real default, but we will head that way because you cannot sustain trillion dollar deficits as far as the eye can see. if romney wins, this is a moot issue. if obama wins, it is also a moot issue, because we have at the expiration of the bu

that brings us back to the discussion about tax expenditures. the second goal in addition to raising revenue is reducing wage. what economists would call inefficiencies are dead weight losses. the tax system hurts productivity in and therefore idea voiced by hurting savings and investment and by hurting labor supplied largely defined. the picture that adam showed us about how it affects ours is just a small part of that. it also affects the form in which people take their conversation so we are induced by the fact that all kinds of fringe benefits are excluded from attackable income to taking compensation in ways that are less valuable to us but on a netted tax bases are more attractive and it also affects the kind of spending that americans do because sometimes the spending is tax favored. a third thing is complicity. you mentioned that and people are just overwhelmed with the complexity of the tax love. it makes compliance more difficult and it makes people feel that probably everybody else is getting a better deal than they are and everybody e

i did want to make a few comments to provide some context regarding the overtime expenditure in item five, which will be coming to you shortly to request a reallocation. it is a reallocation from salaries into overtime to this is the ninth budget i have been involved with presented in preparing. we have never come to you asking for more money than what we were originally allocated. i think it is important to frame what we're discussing today. we have never exceeded our budget. however, i do have one slight that i think tells a pretty interesting story. it has to do with the methodology by which we are staffing. what i have here that i am putting up is basically our full-time employee count, and it is for uniformed members from 2002 forward. we had a high of 1845 uniformed employees in fiscal year 2002- 2003. president, we're down to 1374. that is significant -- present day, we're down to 1374. that is again but that is why our overtime expenditure is at the rate it is at. another thing that has come up, and supervisor campos came up last year in the gao committee, started the discussi

it required the expenditure of a lot of money to build the neutral buoyancy simulator but it has paid off in training people for eva. it's irreplaceable. >> and thoroughly one of the tools of nasa today. have you had a chance to operate within that neutral tank at all in recent years? >> no. i was at the tank in houston, but i didn't get in the water but have i experienced doing that in the open ocean. with sea lab. >> that kind of brings us right back to where we started. sometime back you had described, if you will, your acquaintance, the working relationship with cousteau. so right now, you moved out of the realm of astronaut, let's move to transition. first of all, what you did after your flight became fairly common knowledge, and i think you were privy to the fact that you probably would not fly again. is that right? >> well, you know, not at the time of my choice. i got really fascinated with this idea that i discussed with cousteau and then george bond of transferring technology to the ocean. and i did that, or i tried to do that, with sea-lev one then i broke my arm and couldn

. >> the expenditures is primarily for water main replacement work -- that was the water component not funded to the voters approve program? >> that is correct. we have about 1,215 miles of water mains going beneath the street. we think we need to replace 15 miles per year. we have some very old pipes. some are in very good condition, so we always make sure we do condition assessments and repair the ones that need it the most. we try to do the water and sewer replacement at the same time so the street is only dug up once. supervisor chu: at the current rate, we are only funding about 6 miles a year? this gets us to 15 miles a year? >> it ramps up to 15 miles in 2015. if you look specifically at two years, we would ramp up to about 14 miles in 2014 and 15 miles in the next year. >>supervisor chu: how do we geto that? >> we look at where they are and the failure rate and that is what we think we would need to do it over the next 10 to 15 years. water pipes and sewer pipes are typically of similar age to the neighborhoods that develop in san francisco. as we develop new neighborhoods, a l

we have more extensive details and i appreciate going back to the expenditure plan. this project has a long history in san francisco. van ness is one of the key links in the rapid network being reviewed as part of the transit effect of this project and this is a key component. it's one of the first out of the gate. in addition to the partnership with an eta, we have been working with a lot of city agencies. puc,dpw. we have applied for federal funds. many agencies are involved in this project and we are at a very exciting stage. just to go back to what is the purpose of the project? i probably don't need to remind the commission but the main reason is to improve the reliability of the 47 and 49 along van ness ave as luck -- as well as the golden gate buses as well. this shows the frequency of buses as they arrive at market street. they're scheduled to come every seven to eight minutes. you can see as of today, it is pretty flat. you are as likely to get a bus 14 minutes apart for one minute with serious bus bunching. we want to improve the reliability and increase rid