[ad_1]
A measure aimed at taxing wealthy businesses and funding homeless services that saw commercial insults being swapped with overwhelming support on Tuesday
Proposal C is expected to generate additional revenues estimated at between $ 250 million and $ 300 million for the services provided to approximately 7,500 people sleeping on the sidewalks each night.
On Wednesday, with 100% of the votes counted, the tax was adopted with 60% of the votes.
"I think it really depends on decades of organizing and creating the conditions that made last night's win possible," said Jennifer Friedenbach, executive director of the Coalition on Homelessness, one Prop C. Architects battle just to maintain our basic humanity in San Francisco. It's a real battle, but we managed to do it and that's why we succeeded. "
The tax has become the central issue of the technology sector during this election cycle, the billionaires have kept the spotlight in the spotlight with very public fights and donations for or against. Opponents argue that the tax will push companies out of the city, while advocates point out that homelessness in San Francisco has become a humanitarian crisis in part because of the technological boom that has contributed to rising costs. housing.
Salesforce's CEO, Marc Benioff, led the charge, channeling millions of dollars of his own money into the "Yes on C" campaign and calling on the tech giants who went there opposed.
On Wednesday, he tweeted, "The victory of Prop C means that the homeless will have a home and the help they really need! Let the city come together in love for those who need it most! There is no line of arrival to help the homeless. "
Jack Dorsey, CEO of Twitter and Square, was one of the most outspoken critics of the measure, saying he did not think it was "the best way" to "solve the homelessness problem." Many have criticized his position, pointing out that Twitter has long enjoyed substantial tax relief to operate in San Francisco. Zynga's co-founder, Mark Pincus, aroused similar anger when he tweeted that "Prop c is the most stupid and least considered accessory to date" (sic) – Zynga has benefited from a tax break similar to the one that Twitter received after copying Twitter and threatened to do so. go out of San Francisco.
Neither Pincus nor Dorsey have yet tweeted about the C Prop Wednesday. Dorsey did not respond to requests for comments.
The influx of wealth that accompanied San Francisco's second Internet boom created huge economic disparities and propelled the real estate market, fueling chilly relations between residents and new technology transplants. The sector mentality of "moving fast and breaking things" highlighted the stereotype of the authorized but uncommitted technician, as well as the various diatribes and open letters written by founders and entrepreneurs complaining about homelessness. riff-raff "and" degenerate ". they had to meet in their streets to get to work.
But in the years since the start of the boom, technicians have had the time to live and grow in this city and have come to regard it as their home. Many of the Yes on C volunteers were technicians, Friedenbach said.
"We needed 9,000 signatures to vote, and we finally got 28,000 signatures, which is largely due to the fact that a lot of people who get signatures are technicians. She said. "And every time a company has opposed Prop C, their workers have revolted to a certain level."
And thanks to donations from Salesforce and Benioff, Friedenbach said the campaign was able to immediately help some of the homeless create jobs.
"We had already planned to hire homeless people," she said. "We had a budget to hire 40 people, but we were able to increase salaries and hire about 200 homeless people to make phone calls, go door-to-door and do the work. And we could not have done it without Salesforce funding. For the people who live in the country, the homeless people stagnating on these waiting lists, the simple fact of being able to value them as human beings and to fight them side by side is a truly transformative experience . "
The Yes on C campaign had hoped for a two-thirds majority vote to circumvent any legal challenge. In 1996, California voters passed Proposition 216, requiring a two-thirds majority for any new tax measure in which the product is used for a specific purpose. But the city's prosecutor's office interpreted a 2017 Supreme Court ruling that a tax measure imposed on the ballot by citizens, not by government officials, required only a simple majority .
The city is already prepared for the legal battle. Comptroller Ben Rosenfield has asked the mayor and the board of supervisors to put the tax funds raised by Prop C on a reserve until the resolution of any legal dispute.
Friedenbach said she was not too worried about court challenges. "We have a strong city law firm," she said.
Instead, she focuses on the work ahead. In 23 years of collaboration with the coalition, she has not had the opportunity to win many victories. But on Tuesday night, she was able to observe a crowd of people, many of whom were homeless or homeless, and celebrate her.
"They really felt hope for the first time," she said. "They have been hanging out on these waiting lists for years to find housing, and now they can see a path in the street."
Source link
