Everything about San Francisco’s budget is big — even, it turns out, its deficits. The booming center of tech and tourism isn’t quite so booming these days, and new budget projections show the city’s books over the next five years are out of whack to the tune of $848 million.

Even more mind-boggling is a new actuarial report on the city’s pension system. In just one year, the city’s long-term pension liabilities have shot up from $2.3 billion to $5.48 billion. That’s because returns on investments have been low, and life expectancies have risen, a problematic combination when you’re paying retired people.

But first, the immediate news: Mayor Ed Lee will alert his departments this week they need to help him rebalance the books. For the 2017-18 fiscal year, the budget deficit is $119 million. For the next year, it’s $283 million. Take the projected deficits for the next five years together, and you get that eye-popping $848 million figure.

The mayor isn’t anticipating layoffs or major cutbacks. In a city where the budget next year will almost surely top $10 billion for the first time, $119 million is more of a trim than a full-on shave.

“The answer isn’t that we need to panic,” said Melissa Whitehouse, the mayor’s budget director. “It just means we need to be disciplined.”

But why is the air seeping out of the tires of what has been a souped-up race car for the past five years? No, this has nothing to do with President-elect Donald Trump and his threats to strip sanctuary cities of federal funds — if that moves from the realm of Twitter rants to actual policy, a $119 million deficit will be the least of City Hall’s financial woes.

While liberal cities await that potential doomsday scenario, the current monetary problems are much more mundane. Sales tax revenue and transfer tax revenue from the sales of property are both lagging. The sales tax measure that would have brought in $150 million a year for homelessness and transit failed in the November election.

And perhaps most problematically, the city’s pension fund is underperforming. The city assumes a 7.5 percent rate of return on its pension investments, but it has fallen way short of that the past two years. Two years ago, it earned 3.9 percent, and last year it earned 1.3 percent.

Fun fact: Everything the city owns, from cash on hand to the airport to all its buildings and parks, is worth $30 billion, according to the “statement of net position” in its new Comprehensive Annual Financial Report. It’s a real page-turner, believe me. Everything the city owes, including pensions, retiree health care and bond payments, totals $22 billion.

A new report from Truth in Accounting, a nonpartisan think tank, used last year’s statements of net position for the 20 biggest cities in the country and found San Francisco was the fifth worst when it comes to taxpayer burden.

To wipe debt off the books in San Francisco, according to the report, each taxpayer would have to cough up $16,400. That’s a lot better than the worst city, New York City, where taxpayers would be on the hook for $61,000 apiece. But it’s a lot worse than Charlotte, N.C., where the city — are you sitting down for this? — actually has more than enough money to pay its bills.

Sheila Weinberg, CEO of Truth in Accounting, said politicians too often use a metaphorical credit card to pay the bills, pushing costs onto future residents.

“These bills being pushed onto future taxpayers goes against the concept of a balanced budget,” she said.

San Francisco Controller Ben Rosenfield questioned the report’s methodology, noting the liabilities are long term.

“Are they right to highlight the city should be paying attention to our long-term liabilities? Yes,” he said. “But not all these bills are coming due today.”

So how worried should we be?

“I don’t think any of this is cause for alarm at this point,” Rosenfield said. “But it’s a time for the mayor and the board to be prudent and cautious with how they approach the next couple of years.”

Of course, that all could change in the next few months as San Francisco loses a liberal ally in the White House and gains a big, orange question mark. Let’s just say the alarm could officially be sounding before we know it.

San Francisco public school parents (including this one) received a scare Wednesday when the district’s robocall system sent what was billed as an emergency alert.

It turns out there was no immediate emergency, and a glitch caused the prerecorded telephone message to be labeled as such. The content? Assuring parents that the school district will continue to follow San Francisco’s sanctuary city policy and provide a safe space for all students “including recent immigrants regardless of immigration status.”

A letter also went out, signed by interim Superintendent Myong Leigh and Mayor Ed Lee, answering frequently asked questions about President-elect Donald Trump and his immigration policies. In short, the district doesn’t ask students’ immigration status, doesn’t report it to federal agents if it learns of it, and is creating a “rapid response protocol” in case federal immigration agents appear in or around schools under Trump.

The kudos just keep coming for Doniece Sandoval, founder of Lava Mae, the nonprofit that turns decommissioned Muni buses and trailers into shower stalls for homeless people.

She has just been named the grand prize winner of the Kind People program — started by the snack company Kind — beating out 5,000 competitors from around the country. The award comes with $500,000, which Sandoval will use to expand Lava Mae.

In its announcement, the company says the award is “testament to Doniece’s innovative, solutions-oriented approach, which has become a model for addressing the needs of the homeless in communities nationwide.”

Heather Knight is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer who covers City Hall politics. Email: hknight@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @hknightsf