San Francisco voters approve taxes on CEOs, big businesses

In an effort to address economic disparity laid bare by the coronavirus pandemic, San Francisco voters overwhelmingly approved several tax measures targeting property owners and big businesses with CEOs paid far higher than their average workers.

Under the new law, any company whose top executive earns 100 times more than their average worker will pay an extra 0.1% surcharge on its annual business tax payment. If a CEO makes 200 times more than the average employee, the surcharge increases to 0.2%; 300 times gets a 0.3% surcharge and so on.

Voters also agreed to sweeping business tax changes that will lead to a higher tax rate for many tech compadents,” nies, and a higher transfer tax on property sales valued between $ 10 million and $ 25 million.

“We’re not gonna shed any tears if penthouse dwellers have to cough up,” the San Francisco League of Pissed Off Voters wrote in its voter guide.

The results “show that San Franciscans are concerned about growing economic inequality,” city Supervisor Matt Haney, the author of the measure titled the “Overpaid Executive Tax,’’ said Wednesday. “The very wealthy are gaining more and more. They’ve gotten much richer during the pandemic, while everyone else has remained stagnant.”

“We need the wealth that has been generated in the city to be shared more broadly with workers and resihe said.

Critics call the surcharge a blatant attempt at redistribution of wealth and criticized raising business taxes in the middle of a recession.

Since March, COVID- 19 restrictions have shut down critical elements of San Francisco’s vibrant economy. Tourists are scarce, and legions of workers in tech and in the city’s main business and financial districts have left, able to work remotely from anywhere.

“The middle of pandemic- fueled shutdown is the wrong time to raise taxes,” said Jim Wunderman, president and CEO of the business advocacy group Bay Area Council. “The drip, drip, drip of new general taxes is going to erode the already shaky foundations of local economies decimated by the worst downturn in generations.”

The CEO tax is expected to generate between $ 60 million and $ 140 million per year, and Haney said he wants most of the money directed toward health services.