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There is perhaps no greater example of Silicon Valley 's soft power than a conversation about a grassroots proposal. Rob Reich, author of the new book Just Giving: Why Philanthropy Is Failing Democracy and How It Can Do Better, called the drama around San Francisco's Proposal C just as much a sign of our absurd times as New York governor Andrew Cuomo's offer to rename himself "Amazon Cuomo" if it would inspire Jeff Bezos to put Amazon's second headquarters in New York.
Even in the midst of a tech backlash, "the deference to economic power is still strong", says Reich, a Stanford political science professor. But on Tuesday, the most familiar with Big Tech's longterm impact refused to capitulate. Nearly 60 percent of San Francisco voters supported Prop C, which is projected to double the city's budget for homeless services, raising an additional $ 300 million per year through a 400 receptive tax on roughly 400 companies, including Square and Salesforce, which billionaire CEOs bickered online about the initiative.
The Prop C results could be used as a reference to the homelessness crisis rather than an effort to hold Big Tech accountable. After all, Prop C had broad support from advocacy groups and led in polls throughout the campaign. Jennifer Friedenbach, executive director of the Coalition on Homelessness, says that the draft proposal says that it is an equitable solution. "We were really just interested in saying, 'Look, San Francisco is a very affluent town and we have destitute people living in the shadow of that affluence,'" she says. "I think San Franciscans are saying, 'Hey, let's tax the rich and house the poor.' It's pretty simple."
But the success of similar ballot initiatives to tax tech companies elsewhere in the Bay Area suggests a different interpretation.
In East Palo Alto, which has long struggled to attract businesses, nearly 77 percent of voters supported HH, a $ 1.7 million low-income housing and training program for city residents. In Mountain View, Nearly 70 Percent of Voters Supported Measure P, has a headline of $ 6 million a year. and services for the homeless.
Taxes on gross receipts or duties are a function of California's original sin, Proposition 13, a 1978 law that restricts the property taxes that typically fund local government. If, in a couple of years, Amazon Cuomo finds that his namesake has more harm than good, New York might have better options.
Silicon Valley's Unelected Leaders, Silicon Valley's Unlected Leaders. It's this political momentum, more than any tax, that worries the tech industry. The Bay Area votes suggest that Seattle is approved, and then rescinded, tax on employees-read Amazon-won't be the end of local efforts to hold accountable tech companies. Even more interested in keeping things in the region.
"Our elected officials are still starry-eyed about tech companies," says Maria Noel Fernandez of Silicon Valley Rising, a labor-backed group. "She points to San Jose, where Google plans to open the world." at major campus.
Fernandez highlighted a recent study showing that almost nine in 10 workers in the region, less than 20 years ago. "The tech boom is not trickling down here, and I think patience is really running out," she says. Absent action from elected representatives, nerd initiatives are the next best thing, she says.
"It's unfortunate," says Carl Guardino, who has served as the CEO of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, a business group, for more than 20 years. Guardino says the group recently asked 65 local political candidates if they would consider it. "Almost no one said yes," Guardino says. "I think a lot of elected officials realize that in the next economic downturn, we are inevitable, we are going to realize that having jobs is not such a bad thing."
Fernandez and Friedenbach say the choice should not be "These companies are changing the way we operate as humans around the world, and you're telling us how can we grow?" I do not buy it, "Fernandez says.
Barry Lynn, director of the Open Markets Institute, who has had his own high-profile run-in with Google, says efforts to address the concentration of tech power has historically started at the local level. "I'm sure that I'm going to be amazed at how much I'm doing," Amazon says.
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