Tag: San Francisco politics

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SF Superior Court Strikes Down Residential Vacancy Tax

insidesf – excerpt

The San Francisco Superior Court has struck down a residential vacancy tax slated to take effect in 2025, ruling that the tax is unconstitutional.

Voters approved the Empty Homes Tax in 2022, which required owners of apartments or condos in structures with three or more units to pay a tax on units vacant for 182 or more days in a calendar year. Filing and fees were scheduled to begin in 2025.

However, the San Francisco Apartment Association, Small Property Owners of San Francisco Institute, San Francisco Association of Realtors and four individual landlords filed a lawsuit in San Francisco Superior Court in February 2023 to challenge the constitutionality of the law. And the San Francisco Superior Court ruled yesterday morning that the tax violated the Constitution and imposed an unlawful burden on privacy interests, while also being pre-empted by the state’s Ellis Act.

As it stands now, the residential vacancy tax is no longer in effect. The city will appeal the decision and debate will continue. (Here’s a link to the court decision.)

Owners in this property category now don’t need to file or pay any fees to the city. I’ll keep you updated on any future developments…(more)

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Dissecting Mission Local’s reporting on big money donors

By Yujie Zhou :missionlocal – excerpt

Neighbors for a Better San Francisco and TogetherSF are gonna go for Farrell. GrowSF and Abundant SF will go for Breed,” Joe Rivano Barros, told the audience at Manny’s.

That was the prediction for November’s looming election offered by Mission Local’s senior editor at a Tuesday night debrief on big money in San Francisco politics.

Mission Local has been covering the groups that have collectively launched a more conservative-leaning movement to oust progressives from elected office in San Francisco — and their spending. “We’re gonna see a big divide, a big rift in November,” said Rivano Barros. Also on the stage were Will Jarrett, Mission Local’s former data reporter, and managing editor Joe Eskenazi. All three have been contributors to Mission Local’s BigMoneySF series…

The tech- and real-estate-backed groups who have put millions into city elections do not only diverge on mayoral candidates but also differ more generally: Neighbors for a Better San Francisco has geared towards public safety, while GrowSF and Abundant SF are more urbanist and YIMBY, focused on market-rate housing, bike lanes, keeping the great highway and JFK Driver car-f-ree, according to Rivano Barros…

As for the progressive-leaning candidates, one reflection Rivano Barros has heard: “They’ve got to stop just talking about billionaires controlling this.” At some point, you have to offer voters a reason to vote for you, not just reasons to vote against your competitors: “There was a question mark there [in the March election] about what progressives were proffering.”

“If you allow your opponent to define who you are and they have ten times the money you do,” added Eskenazi, “you will lose.”.… (more)

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