I didn’t see this one coming, but you’re right – I should have. Because who are we talking about here, you know?

San Francisco mayor London Breed – literally, the mayor of Crazy Town.

It's the first guaranteed income initiative to focus solely on trans people, and will provide regular, unconditional cash transfers to individuals or households who qualify. https://t.co/sILGD2cDmW

— KRON4 News (@kron4news) November 16, 2022

Before we get into the nitty gritty of this terrific idea, lets take a quick look at the current state of affairs in San Francisco, shall we – set the stage, if you will. As of last January, they were anticipating their first budget surplus in over 20 years, thanks to booming real estate taxes and leftover hand-outs from the American Rescue Plan, although they were still running a projected long-term deficit.

…The city is expecting a surplus of $108 million over the 2022-23 and 2023-24 fiscal years, which start in July. San Francisco still has a projected four-year budget deficit of $149 million, but that’s down from a January 2021 estimate of $413 million.

By September of 2022, what should have been a reality check was settling in among people who are capable of recognizing “reality.”

…Supervisor Rafael Mandelman sent a letter Tuesday to the city’s controller and treasurer asking them to complete an analysis by April 1 of how business tax revenue has been reshaped by the sharply reduced ranks of people regularly working in San Francisco’s many office towers.

…He cited data that showed San Francisco had the most population loss last year of any major American city — with a particular decline in residents who have jobs that can be done remotely.

…He said that since 2019, San Francisco has already endured “major losses” in business tax revenue because fewer relevant employees are doing their jobs within city limits. Additionally, Mandelman said the city’s downtown economic recovery from the pandemic has been ranked last in the nation and economic indicators reported by the Controller’s Office show that the city’s peers have better rates of returning office workers, air travelers and public transit riders.

As of October, the source of the mayor’s projected slush fund has been falling away like a mudslide.

… In San Francisco, for example, revenues from a new business tax have plunged as companies struggle to emerge from the pandemic, leading to a shortfall of tens of millions of dollars for homelessness, mental health and substance abuse programs, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.

She doesn’t have enough cha-ching to fund what she already has on the books. NONE of that decline happened in a vacuum, and prudent city stewardship would have seen the economic writing on the wall because, even as the possibility of a surplus arose, the financial climate of the country was shifting to the downside. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know people aren’t happy in the city and are making plans to head for the exits – taking SF’s tax base with them – just as soon as they can.

…John Whitehurst, a political consultant, said he has “never seen voters more upset and angry in San Francisco than they have been over the last two years and continue to be, and that anger gets expressed in many ways. Two ways, recently, include the district attorney recall and the Board of Education recall.”

Roughly one-third of the respondents said they were likely to leave within the next three years. A large majority, 65%, said that life in the city is worse than when they first moved here. Less than one-quarter of respondents said they expected life in San Francisco to improve in two years. More than one-third said it would worsen.

San Franciscans were largely in agreement about the city’s biggest problems: Homelessness took first place, followed by public safety and housing affordability. When asked if, three years from now, those problems would be significantly less severe, nearly 70% of people said either “slightly likely” or “not likely at all.”

Survey after survey will come back with those three same exact concerns of citizens – homelessness, public safety and housing affordability. Mayor Breed is already up to her neck in alligators paying to maintain what she currently has.

In times of strain and hardship, if there is no leader to take charge, why then a public diversion is called for. Bring on the money blowing boondoggle.

…The Guaranteed Income for Trans People program will provide low-income transgender San Franciscans with $1,200 each month, for up to 18 months, to help address financial insecurity within trans communities, Breed revealed Wednesday.

The pilot program is the first guaranteed income initiative to focus solely on trans people, and will provide regular, unconditional cash transfers to individuals or households who qualify, according to the Mayor’s Office. This differs from other social safety net practices by providing a steady, predictable stream of cash to recipients to spend as they see fit without limitations.

The GIFT program will provide eligible trans individuals with temporary income and a range of wrap-around direct services, such as gender affirming medical and mental health care, as well as financial coaching, according to the Mayor’s Office.

…n 2015, when the U.S. Trans Survey was last conducted, 33% of trans Californians were living in poverty, compared to 12% of people in the general population.

“Even with our rich history of trans advocacy, we see that trans San Franciscans experience poverty at exponentially higher rates compared to the general population,” said Pau Crego, Executive Director of the San Francisco Office of Transgender Initiatives.

Insane as it sounds on the surface, that is nothing compared to the process of implementing of the program itself. The first page of the application (PDF of application) explains benefits and the requirements to receive such…

…and then does it ever take a Crazy Town turn. For instance:

The application for transgender San Francisco residents to receive guaranteed income, has NINETY SEVEN gender options. Beyond parody pic.twitter.com/P7AnReTMDF

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) November 17, 2022

NINETY. SEVEN. GENDERS. And you know that’s not going to be enough. Some of the entries are just gob-smacking hilarious. “BUT REAL.”

I mean, do I even want to know? *thinkthinkthink* No. I do not.

What is this “gender” gobbledegook? It sounds like two year olds having a playpen conversation. YGTBFKM

Page 5 does have a GENDER OUTLAW choice. There is also STUD and, comfortingly enough, MAN, although in what context it’s meant I can’t say. I’ll be an optimist.

This is not an easy application to finish my friends. You still have to pick your pronouns. Daggum, the hoops one has to jump through. The $1200/mth is not “free” if they expect you to deal with this level of bureaucracy.

No need to delve further into the madness. The PDF link is above, so you can root through it on your own, share it with friends, giggle over how far out in space those whackjobs are, and weep over how many people in the country encourage the spread and legitimization of such destructive lunacy. And punch back hard at the demonization of regular folks who look at it all and say, “No. Enough.”

San Franciscans are voting with their feet. Breed can’t fully fund the schools or police, but she has the wherewithal to fund a welfare program for a niche group of miserable individuals with a majority of self-inflicted problems?

Xem’s crazy.