San Francisco voters approve tax-based measure to help homeless people, Tech billionaire Marc Benioff wins big win

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A vote in San Francisco on homelessness that has turned into a "Big Tech titans battle" was passed with 60% of the vote, ending a very public dispute between some of the most billionaires rich of the planet.

Known as Prop C, it will raise $ 250 to $ 300 million annually in corporate taxes, the largest tax increase in the city's history, for a fund dedicated to solving the crisis in the economy. homeless in San Francisco. Only corporations with gross annual revenues in excess of $ 50 million – approximately 400 companies, or 3.1% of all San Francisco-based companies – will be taxed at rates ranging from 0.175% to 0.69%. on the gross receipts. Firms with gross revenues in excess of $ 1 billion would pay an additional 1.4% of payroll taxes. the tax applies only to businesses generated in San Francisco.

For the past year, the proposed tax has been the result of collaboration between various local organizations dedicated to helping the homeless, including the GLIDE Foundation, the Coalition on Homelessness, the San Francisco Mental Health Association, and the Alliance. for affordable housing. However, what began as a popular election initiative became a political battleground for the tech elite when billionaires like Marc Benioff of Salesforce and Jack Dorsey of Twitter and Square began debating the measure of characters on both Twitter.

At 10:40 pm PST on Tuesday night, when it seemed likely that Prop C would pass, Benioff – the lonely billionaire who supported the new tax – fired a victorious tweet: "Let the city unite in love for those who need it most! There is no line of arrival to help the homeless. Thanks to the friendly supporters of Prop C!

An hour later, the campaign No on Prop. C issued a statement that the ballot had failed to gain the support of two-thirds of the voters needed "for San Francisco to ever see a penny that Proposal C had promised". Since it was not elected officials, but electors who put the proposed tax on the ballot, the voting requirement required two-thirds of the vote to prevent further debate. The "No" campaign alluded to future litigation that would prevent money from ever being allocated to a homelessness fund.

In early October, Benioff strongly committed to the Homelessness Fund Tax Project, which would almost double the amount of money currently used by the city to provide services to homeless people. homeless. His $ 13 billion company (income) would pay $ 10 million in additional taxes. The co-founder of Salesforce treated the C app as if it were a national campaign, giving interviews on CNN, writing an editorial for the New York Times and garnering the support of sometimes high-level local celebrities (rapper G-Eazy of Oakland) and sometimes no (the Jewel singer, originally from Alaska).

A group of billionaire opponents of Prop C appeared in reaction. The first was Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Twitter and the mobile payment app Square, who responded to one of Benioff's C C tweets with his own tweet: "I want to help solve the homelessness problem in SF and California. I do not think that (Prop C) is the best way to do it. "

This sparked a public dispute between Benioff and Dorsey, with Benioff asking Dorsey what he had done to help reduce homelessness in San Francisco. Other billionaires opposed to the C proposal also joined the debate, including Patrick Collison, CEO and co-founder of the online payment processor Stripe; Mark Pincus, co-founder of social game maker Zynga; and Michael Moritz, a venture capitalist at Sequoia. Opposition deputies said the proposal lacked accountability and that there was no clear roadmap of where the taxes would go. Benioff now calls the highly publicized debate "a gift from God".

The billionaires against Prop C paid a total of $ 325,000 to fight the polls, and their companies spent just under $ 500,000, according to data compiled by the agency of the city government ethics commission . These figures are minimal compared to the expenses of Benioff and Salesforce, who are the two major political contributors to the San Francisco elections this year. Salesforce donated $ 6 million, all of which was awarded to a proposal support committee. C. Benioff also paid an additional $ 2.1 million to support the adoption of the new tax.

Benioff, who could almost be mistaken for San Francisco's homeless tsar, continued to argue with Dorsey and Pincus on Twitter about ballot voting in the days leading up to the election.

Benioff, the only native of the San Francisco Bay Area, decided to support Prop C after reading a local government analysis presented by the Comptroller's Office on the proposed tax at the end of September, according to which its economic impact would be minimal. the potential social profit would be high, according to a source close to Benioff.

The problem is complicated when the mayor of San Francisco, London Breed, opposed Prop C on October 5. The mayor explained many reasons why she opposed Prop C, including the need for an audit of the $ 300 million that the city had invested. Spending already for homelessness programs, fears that businesses are leaving San Francisco as a result of the tax and that the influx of tax dollars is preventing public and federal funds from helping to solve the problem of the homeless.

Jennifer Friedenbach, Executive Director of the Coalition on Homelessness, who helped put Proposal C on the ballot, said Mayor Breed's arguments were moot. She stated that audits had already been conducted and that support from officials such as Representative Nancy Pelosi and Senator Dianne Feinstein for Proposal C indicated that this would not interfere with state and federal funding. "We can continue to wait for the state or federal government to intervene, but we have been waiting for a long time already," Friedenbach said.

Friedenbach adds that Mayor Breed's reasons seem to contradict the platform she presented, which included the fight against homelessness. Friedenbach objected to this proposal because of the possibility of a possible return of campaign in the confrontation of the proposal because of the potential money of the coming campaign. "She has to answer those questions herself," she says. "But she makes a lot of decisions and hears many of her financial contributors whose financial results will suffer."

A representative of Mayor Breed did not respond to a request for comment.

According to the controller's report, San Francisco's homeless population has increased by about 20% from 2007 to 2017. Prop C requires 50% of new funding to be used to ensure permanent housing for homeless people and 25% for mental health services designed for the homeless. While the proposed ballot was to be adopted Tuesday night, supporters were hoping for a two-thirds majority to avoid potential lawsuits that would prevent the city from applying the new tax. .

Dorsey and Collison, the billionaires whose financial technology companies would face a higher tax bill under Proposition C, have been at the forefront of the opposition, relying on dollars paid in respect of the proposed tax. Many other technology companies that would be affected by the new tax have for the most part remained silent. A spokesman for Lyft, who gave $ 100,000 to a committee opposed to proposal C, according to information released to the public, said: "We support Mayor Breed, Senator Scott & rsqb; Wiener and Assemblymember & lsqb; David & rsqb; Chiu for the implementation of approaches that most effectively deal with homelessness. "A spokesman for Uber declined to comment on the article and the company did not give money for or against the proposed fee. Airbnb could not be contacted for comment.

"For CEOs who are supposed to protect their bottom line, staying out of it and staying neutral is a big problem," says Friedenbach. "It means that they are not interested in trying to quell that move that caught fire."

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A vote in San Francisco on homelessness that has turned into a "Big Tech titans battle" was passed with 60% of the vote, ending a very public dispute between some of the most billionaires rich of the planet.

Known as Prop C, it will raise $ 250 to $ 300 million annually in corporate taxes, the largest tax increase in the city's history, for a fund dedicated to solving the crisis in the economy. homeless in San Francisco. Only corporations with gross annual revenues in excess of $ 50 million – approximately 400 companies, or 3.1% of all San Francisco-based companies – will be taxed at rates ranging from 0.175% to 0.69%. on the gross receipts. Firms with gross revenues in excess of $ 1 billion would pay an additional 1.4% of payroll taxes. the tax applies only to businesses generated in San Francisco.

For the past year, the proposed tax has been the result of collaboration between various local organizations dedicated to helping the homeless, including the GLIDE Foundation, the Coalition on Homelessness, the San Francisco Mental Health Association, and the Alliance. for affordable housing. However, what began as a popular election initiative became a political battleground for the tech elite when billionaires like Marc Benioff of Salesforce and Jack Dorsey of Twitter and Square began debating the measure of characters on both Twitter.

At 10:40 pm PST on Tuesday night, when it seemed likely that Prop C would pass, Benioff – the lonely billionaire who supported the new tax – fired a victorious tweet: "Let the city unite in love for those who need it most! There is no line of arrival to help the homeless. Thanks to the friendly supporters of Prop C!

An hour later, the campaign No on Prop. C issued a statement that the ballot had failed to gain the support of two-thirds of the voters needed "for San Francisco to ever see a penny that Proposal C had promised". Since it was not elected officials, but electors who put the proposed tax on the ballot, the voting requirement required two-thirds of the vote to prevent further debate. The "No" campaign alluded to future litigation that would prevent money from ever being allocated to a homelessness fund.

In early October, Benioff strongly committed to the Homelessness Fund Tax Project, which would almost double the amount of money currently used by the city to provide services to homeless people. homeless. His $ 13 billion company (income) would pay $ 10 million in additional taxes. The co-founder of Salesforce treated the C app as if it were a national campaign, giving interviews on CNN, writing an editorial for the New York Times and garnering the support of sometimes high-level local celebrities (rapper G-Eazy of Oakland) and sometimes no (the Jewel singer, originally from Alaska).

A group of billionaire opponents of Prop C appeared in reaction. The first was Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Twitter and the mobile payment app Square, who responded to one of Benioff's C C tweets with his own tweet: "I want to help solve the homelessness problem in SF and California. I do not think that (Prop C) is the best way to do it. "

This sparked a public dispute between Benioff and Dorsey, with Benioff asking Dorsey what he had done to help reduce homelessness in San Francisco. Other billionaires opposed to the C proposal also joined the debate, including Patrick Collison, CEO and co-founder of the online payment processor Stripe; Mark Pincus, co-founder of social game maker Zynga; and Michael Moritz, a venture capitalist at Sequoia. Opposition deputies said the proposal lacked accountability and that there was no clear roadmap of where the taxes would go. Benioff now calls the highly publicized debate "a gift from God".

The billionaires against Prop C paid a total of $ 325,000 to fight the polls, and their companies spent just under $ 500,000, according to data compiled by the agency of the city government ethics commission . These figures are minimal compared to the expenses of Benioff and Salesforce, who are the two major political contributors to the San Francisco elections this year. Salesforce donated $ 6 million, all of which was awarded to a proposal support committee. C. Benioff also paid an additional $ 2.1 million to support the adoption of the new tax.

Benioff, who could almost be mistaken for San Francisco's homeless tsar, continued to argue with Dorsey and Pincus on Twitter about ballot voting in the days leading up to the election.

Benioff, the only native of the San Francisco Bay Area, decided to support Prop C after reading a local government analysis presented by the Comptroller's Office on the proposed tax at the end of September, according to which its economic impact would be minimal. the potential social profit would be high, according to a source close to Benioff.

The problem is complicated when the mayor of San Francisco, London Breed, opposed Prop C on October 5. The mayor explained many reasons why she opposed Prop C, including the need for an audit of the $ 300 million that the city had invested. Spending already for homelessness programs, fears that businesses are leaving San Francisco as a result of the tax and that the influx of tax dollars is preventing public and federal funds from helping to solve the problem of the homeless.

Jennifer Friedenbach, Executive Director of the Coalition on Homelessness, who helped put Proposal C on the ballot, said Mayor Breed's arguments were moot. She stated that audits had already been conducted and that support from officials such as Representative Nancy Pelosi and Senator Dianne Feinstein for Proposal C indicated that this would not interfere with state and federal funding. "We can continue to wait for the state or federal government to intervene, but we have been waiting for a long time already," Friedenbach said.

Friedenbach adds that Mayor Breed's reasons seem to contradict the platform she presented, which included the fight against homelessness. Friedenbach objected to this proposal because of the possibility of a possible return of campaign in the confrontation of the proposal because of the potential money of the coming campaign. "She has to answer those questions herself," she says. "But she makes a lot of decisions and hears many of her financial contributors whose financial results will suffer."

A representative of Mayor Breed did not respond to a request for comment.

According to the controller's report, San Francisco's homeless population has increased by about 20% from 2007 to 2017. Prop C requires 50% of new funding to be used to ensure permanent housing for homeless people and 25% for mental health services designed for the homeless. While the proposed ballot was to be adopted Tuesday night, supporters were hoping for a two-thirds majority to avoid potential lawsuits that would prevent the city from applying the new tax. .

Dorsey and Collison, the billionaires whose financial technology companies would face a higher tax bill under Proposition C, have been at the forefront of the opposition, relying on dollars paid in respect of the proposed tax. Many other technology companies that would be affected by the new tax have for the most part remained silent. A spokesman for Lyft, who gave $ 100,000 to a committee opposed to proposal C, according to information released to the public, said: "We support Mayor Breed, Senator [Scott] Wiener, and Assemblymember [David] Chiu in the implementation of approaches that most effectively deal with homelessness. "A spokesman for Uber declined to comment on the article and the company did not give money for or against the proposed fee. Airbnb could not be contacted for comment.

"For CEOs who are supposed to protect the bottom line, staying out of it and staying neutral is a big problem," says Friedenbach. "It means that they are not interested in trying to quell that move that caught fire."