Big bucks in S. F. races on 3 supe seats, transfer tax

As San Francisco voters cast their ballots ahead of the November election, millions of dollars have been raised in an attempt to sway their decisions through mailers, TV commercials and social media ads.

More than $ 4 million has been raised against Proposition I, a San Francisco ballot measure that would double the city’s real estate transfer tax, while a super PAC opposing some progressive candidates for the Board of Supervisors has raised more than $ 3 million.

It’s a staggering amount of money for a local election, which has largely flown under

the radar as focus remains on the presidential ticket.

The money raised against Prop. I exceeds money raised for each of the other measures on the ballot, according to the San Francisco Ethics Commission. The only other measure to crack $ 1 million in funding is Proposition A, a bond measure that has widespread support.

“Any time someone is spending millions on a local measure, that is concerning,” said Supervisor Dean Preston, author of the measure.

“But I think voters will see through it.”

If passed, Prop. I would change the property transfer tax rate on transactions valued at more than $ 10 million and less than $ 25 million from 2.75% to 5.5%. The transfer tax for properties selling for more than $ 25 million would rise from 3% to 6%.

Supporters say the tax will impact only those who can afford it, and the money will go toward muchneeded affordable housing production in the city and to those who can’t pay rent due to the coronavirus pandemic. While the Board of Supervisors signed a nonbinding resolution saying money generated from the tax would go to those purposes, it is still not guaranteed, as it is a generalfund tax.

The campaign against Prop. I is largely organized by San Francisco’s Chamber of Commerce, which generally opposes new taxes. As of Monday, opponents of the measure — who say the tax will hurt housing production in the city by making development sites more costly to buy — had raised $ 4 million against the measure.

“It was already really expensive to build in San Francisco, and this kind of pushes it over the edge,” Jay Cheng, policy director for the Chamber of Commerce, previously told The Chronicle.

A large chunk of that opposition spending has come from the California Association of Realtors Issues Mobilization PAC, a super PAC registered in Los Angeles. Other donors include major landlords and developers like Equity Residential, Boston Properties, Brookfield Properties, Essex Property Trust and Kilroy

Realty Corp.

Meanwhile, a super PAC called Neighbors for a Better San Francisco has raised more than $ 3 million, part of which it has spent on supervisorial races, according to the latest Ethics Commission filing. According to the Ethics Commission, the super PAC has spent about $ 5,000 supporting former Supervisor Vallie Brown and tens of thousands of dollars opposing candidates including Preston, Vilaska Nguyen and John Avalos.

One big contributor to that independent expenditure committee is William

Oberndorf, a major Republican donor who gave $ 1 million to a super PAC supporting Sen. Mitch McConnell’s reelection, according to opensecrets. org, which tracks money in U. S. politics. Other donors include big names in the business and tech industries, like John Pritzker, Chris Larsen and Michael Moritz.