By J.K. Dineen : sfchronicle – excerpt
2of4Supervisor Matt Haney says that, with the city in a crisis, more money is needed from companies that “spend that much on lunch.”Photo: Yalonda M. James / The Chronicle
3of4Arguello Market’s Sal Qaqundah, with employee Xandra Gonzalez, opposes new business taxes.Photo: Nina Riggio / Special to The Chronicle
San Francisco voters could be weighing as many as five tax hike measures this fall, in what will be a test of how the coronavirus-fueled recession influences attitudes on economic growth and whether the city’s big businesses are paying their fair share.
Four of the five tax-increase proposals — which have been placed on the November ballot but could still be withdrawn up until the end of July — were rooted in the pre-COVID days of 2019 when the city was flush with cash, the hotels were packed with business travelers, unemployment was about 2% and the growth of tech companies seemed limitless….
Haney, along with Supervisor Hillary Ronen, is behind one of the three revenue measures: a tax on CEOs earning at least 100 times the median income of their average worker…
Another measure, by Supervisor Gordon Mar, would put a 1.12% payroll tax on stock-based compensation and is expected to raise $50 million to $150 million…
A third, by Supervisor Dean Preston, would double the transfer tax from about 3% to 6% for residential and commercial properties sold for more than $10 million…
The fourth and fifth measures, the most comprehensive and complicated, are two competing proposals to overhaul the city’s gross receipts tax, one by Mayor London Breed and the other by the Board of Supervisors…(more)