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SAN FRANCISCO – In a city where the massive influx of highly paid technology workers has been accused of driving up housing prices and exacerbating homelessness, the question of who should pay for a solution triggered a Voting measure that politically divides the $ 300 Million business tax per year for homeless services.
San Francisco's Proposal C reflects a broader phenomenon, based on the belief that the Bay Area's booming tech companies should pay more taxes to help cities deal with all the problems, the growing crisis homelessness to terrible traffic.
In Mountain View, voters are asked to approve an "entry tax" per employee on businesses to raise funds for transportation projects that reduce congestion. Most of the tax would be paid by Google, the largest employer in Mountain View.
If taxes on San Francisco or Mountain View companies are approved by voters on Tuesday, similar levies are likely to spread to other cities in the San Francisco Bay Area, the Mountain View Mayor predicts. Lenny Siegel, a supporter of his city's tax plan.
"We hope cities where there are a lot of jobs in the technology sector," Siegel said. "When we need more money, we always think about the little guy. We now have the opportunity … to impose entities that have more money than they know what to do. "
Unlike Mountain View, where Google has not publicly opposed the tax plan, some San Francisco chief technical officers are fighting a fierce battle – against each other.
On the one hand, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff donated $ 2 million to support Proposal C. His company paid nearly $ 6 million more into the campaign, according to financial data.
"Unfortunately, some CEOs still take a short-sighted view and believe that they have a fiduciary duty to shareholders, with little or no accountability to the communities in which they do business," Benioff said in a tweet dated 31 October that he has retweeted since. – and retweeted.
Meanwhile, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey fought back for the other company he runs, the mobile payment company Square. After Benioff publicly called on Dorsey to disclose how much he had spent with his businesses to support homelessness services, Dorsey retorted on Twitter, "Mark, you're entertaining. It's about me who support the mayor @LondonBreed for * the * reason she was elected. The mayor does not support proposal C and we should listen to it. "
Lyft, Stripe and Visa have also paid thousands of dollars to defeat the measure. At the same time, Chuck Robbins, Cisco CEO, based in San Jose, is among those recommending Proposal C. Earlier this year, Cisco announced a $ 50 million contribution over five years to help put a term homelessness in Santa Clara County.
The "Gross Revenue Tax" in Proposal C would almost double the city's current housing and homelessness service spending by applying a complex formula to a firm's global income, taking into account the type of housing industry, locations and size of offices. Only businesses with gross revenues in excess of $ 50 million would be affected and, in general, larger companies operating primarily in the city would pay more. Half of the new income would go to permanent housing, one quarter to homeless mental health services, the rest would fund homelessness prevention and short-term shelters.
It bothers Dorsey, who spent $ 125,000 fighting it, while Square earns $ 50,000 more, according to the campaign's funding data.
At the end of last month, Dorsey had tweeted that the tax was unfair to Square and other start-up companies in the financial technology sector, like Stripe, an online payment company that had donated 400,000 $ to oppose this measure, according to the records. He added that it could force Square to pay more than $ 20 million next year, while Salesforce – a much larger company – could pay less than $ 10 million.
Mayor Breed said in a statement that the C proposal would hurt the local economy and would result in "the inevitable theft of corporate – and job – based businesses from San Francisco to the US. other cities in the Bay Area or other states ".
Breed highlighted the work of his administration, citing the increase in the number of accommodation and psychiatric beds, spending on facilities for people at the threshold of homelessness and cooperation with state legislators. and the leaders of neighboring regions.
The Coalition on Homelessness, which created Proposition C, said the city's priority should be to house the thousands of people who are suffering on the streets.
"If that succeeds, homelessness on the streets would be significantly reduced," said Sam Lew, director of coalition policy.
But Breed and the San Francisco chamber of commerce fear that without effective action against homelessness in the region and in the state, Prop C would have the opposite effect, turning the city into a magnet for people in difficulty.
"You are going to spend this huge amount of resources and create a continuous cycle of homelessness … coming to San Francisco and lining up for these services," said Jim Lazarus, Senior Vice President of Public Policy in the House, who said: Is opposed to the initiative.
The homelessness crisis in San Francisco and its problems with piles of human waste and used syringes have grown in recent years, although the number of homeless people is around 7,000. Development-related cleansing forced the homeless to leave the hidden areas while a heroin epidemic hit the oppressed hard, Lazarus said.
US Senator Dianne Feinstein of San Francisco said in a statement that she would support "virtually all homelessness projects. . . We must help. When you see someone – and I just did – lying on a hot sidewalk, not sleeping with anything, it's not the United States of America. "
The new federal corporate tax cuts have reinforced the argument that corporations should invest more in their communities, said Siegel of Mountain View. "There's a sense that companies have the money and they even have more … so they can afford to pay," Siegel said.
San Francisco lawyer and resident Dennis Vann has not yet made a final decision on his vote. He is almost against "Proposition C". "He is only spending more money on the problem," said Vann, 64. money in mental health. "
Anna Morrow, who blames tech companies for being moved from an apartment to the street then to a social housing project, thinks that proposal C could help. The 58-year-old former Massage Therapist and Massage Therapist said the burgeoning technology sector and rising rents are preventing people from recovering when they become homeless.
"I live in social housing the rest of my life," she said, standing on the sidewalk a few blocks from Twitter's headquarters. "The technology sector should definitely take some of that responsibility."
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