SAN FRANCISCO—This week, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors’ Budget and Finance Committee will be assembling to decide on several tax measures for the November 2020 ballot. Four of the five measures to increase taxes were based on the city’s economy in 2019, prior to the coronavirus pandemic.
Some businesses are in opposition to the increase in taxes being proposed during the current crisis, but the Board of Supervisors indicated the city will use this money to provide services to the public.
The first tax measure, proposed by Supervisors Matt Haney and Hillary Ronen, will tax CEOs earning at least 100 times the median income of their workers. The proposed measure could impact businesses including Charles Scharf’s Wells Fargo, Al Kelly’s Visa, Sonia Syngal’s Gap Inc., Brian Roberts’ Comcast, Brian Moynihan’s Bank of America, Jamie Dimon’s JP Morgan, and Brian Niccol’s Chipotle. With the new tax measure, approximately $140 million could be raised annually.
The second measure, proposed by Supervisor Gordon Mar, would put a 1.12 percent payroll tax on stock-based compensation which could raise between $50 million and $150 million.
The third measure, proposed by Supervisor Dean Preston, would double the transfer tax for residential and commercial properties sold for over $10 million from three percent to six percent. The fourth and fifth measures are proposals to remove the city’s gross receipts tax, one proposed by Mayor London Breed and the other by the Board of Supervisors.
The Board of Supervisors have until the end of July to finalize their decision or remove measures from the ballot.
