S.F. ballot to include 13 citywide measures
San Francisco voters will confront 13 local initiatives when they cast their ballots in November. It’s a list that features measures to allow 16 and 17yearolds to vote in local elections, break up the Public Works Department and overhaul the city’s businesstax structure.
And alongside voters in San Mateo and Santa Clara counties, San Franciscans will also decide on a sales tax to fund Caltrain, widely considered to be a financial lifeline for the train service in the face of plummeting ridership because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Here’s a breakdown: Proposition A: A $487.5 million bond measure. The “Health and Homelessness, Parks and Streets Bond” needs a twothirds supermajority — the threshold for all bond measures — and would allocate:
$239 million for parks, open spaces and recreational facilities.
$207 million for facilities mental health and substance abuse services, permanent support
ive housing and homeless shelters.
$41.5 million for seismic improvements to public structures and plazas, installing curb ramps and road repairs.
Proposition B: It would amend the City Charter to split off Public Works’ street cleaning, sidewalk maintenance and sanitation duties into a new agency, leaving the remaining department to handle engineering, design, project management and other work tied to San Francisco’s public infrastructure.
Supervisor Matt Haney’s measure would also subject both departments to a fiveperson commission that would approve contracts, set standards, hold public meetings and oversee each agency’s overall performance.
The proposition would cost the city between $2.5 million and $6 million annually, according to the City Controller’s Office, mostly from the hiring to fill administrative roles at the new street and sanitation department currently handled by Public Works employees. There is no mandate to hire new street cleaners.
Proposition C: A charter amendment that would allow noncitizens to serve on boards that advise City Hall on public policy issues like housing, health care and civil rights.
The measure, championed by Supervisor Shamann Walton, would eliminate requirements that prevent people from serving on city bodies unless they’re registered to vote. That means they must be U.S. citizens. Walton’s measure would relax those requirements. The measure needs a simplemajority vote to pass. Proposition D: A charter amendment sponsored by Walton to create greater oversight at the Sheriff’s Department.
If passed with a simplemajority vote, Prop. D would create a sevenmember Sheriff’s Department Oversight Board that would make policy recommendations to the sheriff and the Board of Supervisors. The measure would also create the Sheriff’s Department Office of Inspector General, which would investigate incustody deaths and complaints against the department, its employees and contractors.
Any evidence of criminal misconduct by department employees would be referred to the District Attorney’s Office. Both of the new agencies would have subpoena power to conduct investigations, but neither could issue formal directives to the Sheriff’s Department or hire, fire or discipline any of its personnel. The new agencies would cost, at most, $2 million annually. Proposition E: Supervisor Norman Yee’s measure would eliminate the mandate in the City Charter that the Police Department maintain a roster of 1,971 fullduty officers.
The requirement, introduced to the charter in the mid1990s, has been deemed a needlessly inflexible and antiquated yardstick for police staffing levels. If passed with a simplemajority vote, Prop. E would do away with the fixed staffing requirement and require the Police Department to submit a staffing report to the Police Commission every two years.
Proposition F: A sweeping measure to overhaul San Francisco’s businesstax structure.
If passed with a simplemajority vote, Prop. F would recalibrate business taxes in a number of ways, phasing out the payroll, tax, increasing gross receipts business tax rates for some businesses and increasing the number of small companies exempted from the business tax. It would allow the city to unlock hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenue tied up in legal disputes and eventually add about $97 million annually.
Proposition G: A measure that would allow 16 and 17yearolds to vote in local elections.
Seizing on momentum generated by recent national movements for climate action, gunlaw reform and other causes led by young people, Yee introduced the initiative to give young people greater agency over the decisions affecting their lives. If passed by voters with a simple majority, the measure would make San Francisco the largest city in the United States to expand suffrage to 16yearolds.
Proposition H: A measure to streamline the city’s permitting process for new businesses looking to open or for existing storefronts seeking to make changes to their operations.
The measure, placed on the ballot by Mayor London Breed, would require city officials to process permit applications for business uses already allowed under existing zoning rules within 30 days if they are within neighborhood commercial districts. Prop. H would also streamline approvals for certain businesses, including cafes and restaurants. Prop. H needs a simplemajority vote to pass. Proposition I: A measure to increase taxes on property sales valued at $10 million or more.
Supervisor Dean Preston’s measure would double the city’s “transfer tax” for big property sales. Preston brought the measure to the ballot in part to hedge against a predicted wave of realestate speculation brought on by the economic recession.
The Controller’s Office speculated that the tax, if passed with a simplemajority vote, could bring in $196 million on average annually — but cautioned that the transfer tax is the city’s “most volatile revenue source” and that the tax could make it swing even more wildly in the future. Proposition J: A $288 parcel tax to generate about $48 million a year for San Francisco Unified School District’s teachers. The city passed a similar measure in 2018, but an ongoing legal dispute over the simplemajority threshold used to validate it is the subject of an ongoing legal dispute.
Now, the city is using the more stringent twothirds supermajority threshold. The new measure would replace the old one if it passes in November. Breed signed the measure onto the ballot.
Proposition K: A measure that would authorize San Francisco to build or rehabilitate up to 10,000 units of affordable housing. Under the state Constitution, voters must approve lowincome housing developments before they can be built. Prop. K, authored by Preston, would give the city the goahead to build such housing if it passes with simplemajority vote. The measure does not provide funding for the housing, however.
Proposition L: A measure to tax companies where top executives earn vastly more money than the rest of their workforce. Introduced by Haney, the “Overpaid Executive Tax” would bring in between $60 million and $140 million annually by taxing businesses that pay the highestearning person in the company 100 times or more than the median salary of its San Francisco workers, starting in 2022.
Measure RR: A threecounty sales tax measure to fund Caltrain. The measure, which must also be passed by voters in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties, would increase sales taxes by oneeighth of a cent to raise $100 million annually for the rail system. Caltrain officials said that with ridership plummeting during the pandemic, the increase will be a financial lifeline until ridership resumes. The measure needs a simple majority to pass.