Yes, it will be easier said than done. But The City could save $26.5 million and cancel up to 8 percent of its upcoming $300 million-plus deficit by simply requiring the 12,562 municipal employees paid from the operating budget to take four unpaid days off sometime during the next fiscal year. Furloughs would be the most direct, and probably the most acceptable, way for Mayor Gavin Newsom to persuade the labor unions representing San Francisco’s police, fire, gardening, street-cleaning and health care employees to accept his April request for contract renegotiations to cut costs by 3 percent. The current labor contracts ban mandatory furloughs. | All Editorials

The California 1st District Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled 3-0 last week that local governments cannot charge phone customers a monthly fee for access to the 911 emergency phone system without two-thirds voter approval. The judges said such user fees were actually special-use taxes requiring direct voter balloting as specified by Proposition 218 in 1996.The ruling quickly spread fiscal shockwaves throughout this cash-strapped state. San Francisco is one of 20 to 25 California cities and counties that add 911 access fees onto monthly phone bills to pay for emergency communications dispatch centers. The City, which charges $2.75 per month, collected $43 million in this fiscal year to fund about 85 percent of its 911 communications costs. | All Editorials

When local governments run short of money, as so often they do, one of the easiest budget items to cut is infrastructure maintenance. After all, the pavements and park greenery could still be fixed next year, so not many voters will care or even notice that routine upkeep has been skimped yet again. Maintenance cutbacks are politically much safer than discontinuing some popular service program.But withholding or redirecting funds needed for consistent maintenance of basic local infrastructure is a risky proposition. Especially as aging facilities approach the end of their normal life expectancy, they become likelier to fail and cause significant public damages that open the door for lawsuits. Additionally, longtime deferral of needed maintenance invariably translates sooner or later into much costlier major repairs and modernization. | All Editorials