Supervisor Chris Daly scored a tentative political victory last night, forcing Mayor Gavin Newsom to withdraw his proposed $1.6 million corporate give-away to San Francisco Cycling, LLC. Newsom attempted to waive the cost of police services for the next four years for their annual T-Mobile International Bike Race, costing the City nearly $400,000 a year in the face of a projected city budget deficit of $130-230 million.

Daly's office issued a press release yesterday announcing that the Board of Supervisors Finance Committee would be hearing a resolution to reject the waiver, and Newsom presumably decided to avoid public pressure and accountability for his blatant attempt at bilking taxpayers by withdrawing his proposal.

Newsom's attempted waiver came on the heels of similar behavior by his predecessor, Willie Brown. A year after the 2001 race, San Francisco Cycling still refused to pay $350,000 in costs to the City. Brown's Office of Business and Economic Development skirted the payment by providing a loan later forgiven based on a technicality.

The give-away would have gone largely to wealthy San Francisco investor Thomas Weisel, the major backer of San Francisco Cycling. Weisel and his companies have given hundreds of thousands of dollars to Republican National or State Committees and thousands to Republican candidates.

In his press release, Daly called the proposed waiver "completely irresponsible of the Mayor.That $1.6 million would fund much needed mental health services as well as services for children and seniors."

While Newsom has withdrawn his proposal, there remains the possibility he will present a similar one in the future or use other means to keep San Francisco Cycling from paying for their race.