Local efforts to tax the rich are getting national attention. The New York Times is reporting on the statewide billionaire tax—and the very rich people who oppose it. Bloomberg News, among others, has covered Proposition D, the overpaid CEO tax on the June ballot.
Now inequality.org, a project of the widely respected Institute for Policy Studies, based in DC, has released a detailed report on big money against Prop. D. The organization released the report to national news media; it notes that
the campaign to defeat Prop D has received individual donations from five billionaires, in addition to contributions from companies with billionaire leaders (Amazon and Google) and other firms with massive CEO-worker pay gaps. Through the “Protect San Francisco’s Small Businesses and Economic Recovery Committee,” these deep-pocketed donors are both opposing Proposition D and supporting Proposition C, an alternate measure that would cut taxes for smaller businesses.
The San Francisco Public Press reported on the big money earlier in the campaign, but it’s now entirely out of control—and analysts around the country are watching.
Prop. D, backed by more than 20 labor groups, would increase the business taxes on companies with more than 1,000 employees and $1 billion in gross receipts that pay their CEOs more than 100 times the pay of the median worker. It would bring $300 million into San Francisco to help offset the massive federal cuts under Donald Trump.
Among those companies the tax would impact: Starbucks, Door Dash, Uber, PG&E, and Comcast. They would pay a higher tax on their gross receipts in San Francisco, even if they are not based here.
Among the companies that pay so little to their workers that some are getting welfare: Amazon and Starbucks.
Among those who are donating big money to stop Prop. D:
PG&E is an odd member of this coalition: It’s CEO makes exactly 100 times as much money as a median employee. That company could drop off the tax list by boosting pay a tiny bit, or cutting CEO pay a tiny bit.
PG&E hasn’t given money to No on D; the utility is focused on making sure Tom Steyer isn’t elected governor, putting up $10 million for a hit campaign against him.
This is national news because the movement to tax the very rich is growing as economic inequality grows even more profound and the impacts spread across the globe.
Opponents of the measure, including the likes of Gary Tan, (embarrassingly) Mary Jung, former chair of the local Democratic Party, and the Republican Party argue that it will drives companies out of San Francisco. That’s silly: Starbucks, Uber, and Comcast will not stop doing business in San Francisco because they have to pay slightly higher taxes.
Every one of the opponents of Prop. D has made far more money than this tax would assess thanks to Trump’s tax cuts. The measure is an attempt to reclaim just a little of the money the city has lost to giant corporations and billionaires under Trump.
The biggest donors are a roster of Big Tech:
Big Real Estate is also involved:
All of this is paying for misleading ads that suggest Prop. D will undermine San Francisco’s recovery. Mayor Daniel Lurie is with them. San Francisco’s recovery depends on a thriving city, and a city that loses many of its services and bows to Trump’s cuts isn’t going to thrive.
And the rest of the world is watching.
