San Francisco Voters Approve Tax Hikes Targeting Big Business, Landlords

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) - San Francisco voters concerned about economic disparity have overwhelmingly approved several tax measures targeting landlords and big businesses whose CEOs earn far more than their average workers.

Proposition L passed Tuesday, and slaps a 0.1% business tax surcharge on any company that pays its top executive 100 times more than its average worker. The surcharge doubles if the pay disparity is 200 times; triples for 300 times and so on.

Voters also passed Proposition I, ushering in sweeping changes that will mean a higher tax rate for many tech companies and a higher transfer tax on property sales valued between $10 million and $25 million.

"The very wealthy are gaining more and more. They've gotten much richer during the pandemic, while everyone else has remained stagnant," said city Supervisor Matt Haney.

He authored the measure titled the "Overpaid Executive Tax," which sought to balance the growing disparity between wealthy tech executives and lower-paid service workers.

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

San Francisco