Transcripts For SFGTV BOS Budget And Finance Appropriations Committees 20240712

Remotely. This precaution is due to the state, federal, and local orders. Committee members will attend the meeting through Video Conference and participate in the extent as if theyre physically present. Public comment will be available on each item on this agenda. Channel 26 and sfgov. Org are streaming the number across the screen. Committee members have an opportunity to speak during Public Comment meeting, you can call 4156550001, meeting i. D. 1463207645. Press pound twice. When connected you will hear the meeting discussion and you will be muted and listening mode only. When your item of interest comes up, dial star 3 to be added to the speaker line. Best practices is to call from a quiet location and turn down your television or radio. Alternatively you can submit Public Comment in the following ways. Email myself at linda. Wong sfgov. Org. The email will be forwarded to the supervisors and will be part of the official file. Madam chair, this concludes my announcement. Thank you very much madam clerk. Can you call item 1. Yes, chart amendment, adjustment of baseline funding. It will not take in account certain changes in city revenue, resulting from voterapproved business taxes on the november 3, 2020, ballot. The municipal transportation fund, the park, recreation and open space fund, the children and youth fund, the Library Preservation fund, the Housing Trust fund, the Public Education enrichment fund, and dignity fund and street Tree Maintenance Fund at an election to be held on november 3, 2020. Increase the Small Business exemption for the gross receipt test to 1. 5 million and increase the annual Business Registration fee on businesses benefit from this increase, modify the gross receipt tax rate, repeal the payroll expense tax, increase the tax receipt tax for certain taxpayers for 15 years, and impose a general test on the gross receipts, and the commercial rent ordinance and make other changes to the citys business taxes. Item number 3. Ordinance to business and tax regulation code, motion ordering submitted to the voters in an ordinan ordinance amending the business and tax regulation code to modify the gross receipt tax rate, repeal the payroll expense tax, increase the gross receipt tax on certain taxpayers for ten years if a Court Strikes down the homelessness gross receipts tax ordinance, impose a new general tax on the gross receipts from the lease and certain commercial space for 10 years if a Court Strikes down the early care and education commercial rents tax ordinance. Identify number four, business and tax regulations code, business tax changes and item number five, Initiative Ordinance, business and tax regulation code, business tax changes. Meeting i. D. Is 1463207645 and press pound twice. Press star 3 to line up to speak. Please wait until the system indicates you have been unmuted and you may begin your comments. Thank you very much madam clerk. Colleagues, i want to provide a brief overview of how this meeting will go today. I will first be calling items 1 through 5 together as they are all related. Item 1 is the Charter Amendment that would exempt charter mandated set aside funds to taking into account certain changes in city revenue, resulting from voter approved backstop taxes that will be discussed in items 2 through 5. I will move to include this amendment in the business tax measure, rather than leaving it as a separate ballot measure. Items 2 through 5 are different versions of a proposal to change the business tax structure and accomplish a number of goals including providing relief to Small Businesses and industries impacted by covid19 by reducing their tax burden and helping them recover. Unlocking the hundreds of millions of dollars that the city has already collected from business taxes for child care and Homelessness Services but is unable to spend because of the ongoi ongoing litigation that was approved by voters in 2018. Completing San Francisco transition from a payroll tax that incentivizes local hirings to more progressive gross receipt tax where more higher earning businesses pay more. Items 2 and 4 were introduced by the mayor and items 3 and 5 was introduced by president yee, supervisor peskin, supervisor haney and myself . In a few minutes, ben rosen field will be presenting on the similarities and differences on this version. He will include an explanation of the amendment that i will be introducing for item 3 at president yees request. I will introduce these amendments once we had a chance to hear from the controller and members of the public, but first i would like to give president yee a chance to speak about this proposal in todays amendment. I also want to thank president yee and his staff for your leadership and your hard work to make this proposal as strong as it could possibly be. I want to extend a huge thank you to my colleagues, supervisor peskin and supervisor haney for making this happen and Ben Rosenfield for all his experience along the way. President yee, the floor is yours. Thank you chair fewer. Im going to thank you for your ongoing leadership as the chair of the Budget Committee. So, as chair fewer mentioned, i joined not only chair fewer but supervisor peskin and haney to bring forward a long overdue reform to our tax system by repealing the payroll tax and replacing it with the gross receipts system. This is the process that started in 2012 when our city leadership made a decision to move our citys business tax from a payroll system to this gross receipts system. The system was seen as a more equitab equitable, as more municipalities have adopted it. The voters saw the logic in this and passed the Reform Ballot Initiative then. However, the 2012 reform did not completely remove the city out of the payroll system and all parties at the time knew that we needed to address this at a future date. I will have to say that the future is now. We believe that this measure also needs to respond to the unprecedented economic crisis we are in with a fair equitable recovery program, especially for our Small Business community and our most vulnerable residents. This is why were calling this is the Small Business and economic recovery act. You must recognize that this Health Emergency only made existing inequities worse and the economic burden is not carried evenly. Who is hurting the most right now are families, small entrepreneurs and familyowned businesses. When we talk about recovery, it cannot be just for a field. You must start from the bottom up. We need to provide immediate relief to the hardest hit industries and businesses and also provide a responsible sustainable Funding Source for San Franciscos economic vitality. Our initial proposal we introduced weeks ago was a starting point. Today we are making a good proposal to a better proposal. Were offering amendments to strengthen the measure that reflects the numerous feedback that we heard throughout this process, particularly from labor, labor leaders, Small Businesses and community advocates. I want to provide a brief overview of what were proposing in amendments today and then allow our city controller to present further details. One major element to the measure is the ability to unlock funds already collected to the city, our city, our own initiative and also our early care and education for all. As you recall these two were passed by voters in 2018, but these voter backed initiatives are currently tied up in litigation. This measure will free up 300 million for the general funds by placing a stop tax that only goes into effect if we lose the court cases. We are extending this backstop tax to 20 years and well also incorporate the Charter Amendments to ensure that the revenue generates for this is not subject to baseline reductions. This will allow the refund of claims and support the general fund and freeing up the dollars intended for Housing Support and also for early care and education support. We are proposing to exempt more businesses from the tax by excluding Small Businesses making 2 million or less, not 200,000, but 2 million or less. This will benefit approximately 3,100 Small Businesses, many of which are barely getting by right now. Small businesses making less than 1 million. We will also see a reduction in the registration fees. We are proposing to provide significant tax reduction to more industries that are hardest hit by covid19 like hotel accommodations, Food Services, restaurants, and manufacturing. Over the course of the next few years. Lastly, it is clear that the economic the economy recovery is going to be prorated, protracted i mean. Therefore we are proposing that no tax increases are considered until january 2022. There will be a small phased incremental increase to the tax rate for Large Industries. Future step increases in 2023 and 2024 will be tied to economic recovery triggers. If the economy were not recovered yet. The tax Rate Modification will then be deferred to the following year. Our economy is entering what i call unchartered waters. We want to remain nimble and have the flexibility as a city to pause any increases by a reporting requirement so the controlling can provide recommendations to the board if taxes need to be further deferred or reduced due to Economic Conditions. Those are the amendments we are reviewing today and i want to emphasize that the board of supervisors maintain the power to defer or reduce taxes. We did this because recently we did this most recently with the vacancy tax. If Economic Conditions do not improve over the course of the next few years, the board can adjust the tax rates accordingly. You can also take a closer look at industry specific situations to provide a more tailored approach to rate changes. I truly believe that the updated measure is balanced, but brings immediate relief to those who need it the most, while offsetting the cost to many Large Industries that are less cost sensitive. I want to be clear that we will be making difficult budget decisions this year. There is no way to avoid that. With this measure, we can minimize the impact. We can prevent massive cuts to critical public services. Reinvest in jobs and Community Revitalization that is so desperately needed and to lift us all out of this devastating pantoja and pandemic and economic crisis. I dont want anyone to get the impression that this will solve all of our budget problems, but without it were going to be in a much worse place. That is something that none of us can afford. Colleague, i hope i can count on your support on this measure and before i hand it back to chair fewer, i want to appreciate the work of controller ben, ted, our chief economist, and our City Attorney team scott for their work and their creative collaboration. I again want to thank the other sponsors in this, for this measure. The supervisor peskin, fewer, and haney who worked with me on this Small Business recovery economic recovery act since the end of last year. I also want to thank their staff from peskins office, fewers office, haneys office, and my own staff. Are there any comments from the other sponsors before i turn it over to our city controller Ben Rosenfield . Supervisor peskin. Thank you president yee. You have taken all of the words of thanks out of my mouth, but i want to give you actually some words of thanks. This was a very, very complicated endeavor long before covid19 hit. We knew that it was going to be the project for 2020s ballot and we had to take some time off after the pandemic hit. You have really steered this across some really stormy unlikely seas and you done it with elegance. You kept your cool, which i have not. I just cannot thank you enough for the way you managed this and let me concur in my thanks and i will shout out my colleagues, and my staff. Thank you to the incredible staff that double checked everything and kept us on course and to budget chair fewer and supervisor haney, thank you. It was an Unlikely Group of four people, our measured president , our budget chair, and supervisors haney and myself. We brought this all together from different perspectives. To our controller and to ted eagan and the controls team. Thank you so much. To the tax team, way to move it incredibly fast as it changed and morphed in many ways. To people in labor, small busine business, as well as the chamber of commerce. I dont want to put words in the chamber of commerces mouths, but i think theyre coming around to the fact that president yee said, we have a fair and balanced package thats a long time in the coming. Thank you president yee for your extraordinary leadership. Thank you, i echo all of those accolades for you and your leadership. A few months ago, i understandably thought this was going to end and we didnt have the capacity to come together and make this happen, but because of your work and your leadership and your staff and chair fewer and supervisor peskin and the controller and the City Attorney staff, who have been working so hard on this, here we are. This is a really important measure generally for the future of San Francisco and its an essential measure for this moment, for right now. We need this to make investments in our critical and essential services to provide tax relief to Small Businesses and to create a structure that will ensure a strong economic recovery, which has to include investments and services and workers and you know, makes me hopeful for what well be able to do in the near future, not just with this revenue and structure, but as a team and as a board, working collaboratively. This is how it gets done. So thank you again and i know that the prop c, big c, little c, labor, on so days the chamber, were all also a part of providing input into this. I would just say as one of the four supervisors who was most closely connected to it and i shared this with the other supervisors, i really hope this is something we can support unanimously. This is a reflection of the best work that we all did on behalf of the rest of the board. It really should get the unanimous support of this board. Hopefully, ultimately of the mayor as well and of the voters of San Francisco. Thank you again for all your work on it. Its really extraordinary and lets get it done. Thank you chair fewer for your leadership and i know you know firsthand from these Budget Committee hearings that we really need this. You can imagine what it will look like in terms of investments and so many critical things without this measure passing. Thank you Budget Committee for your leadership. Chair fewer, did you want to add anything before we turn it over to ben . No president yee, but i like to give the opportunity for sophia to add questions or comments if she would like. Thank you chair fewer and president yee. I wanted to convey the mayors heart felt appreciation to the four of you for a collaborative process and im appreciative of these amendments today and in particular, as we can work our way through this economic recovery. She is reviewing those now and we do hope that we will be able to support this measure and we will be in touch. Thank you. Thank you very much. So president yee, absolutely. I think it is time to call the controller up. Do you agree . I agree. Great. So if we could have the controller, mr. Ben rosenfield. Good afternoon. [indiscernible low volume] i cant hear you. Thank you for having me here today, im Ben Rosenfield, the controller could you speak a little louder or closer . Is that better . Yes. Okay, thank you for having me here today president yee and chair fewer asked me to walk through the two measures that are here before you today by looking at places where theyre different and where theyre similar. Ill run through the different components of the tax. Its a complicated package that defines our second largest revenue in the city. [inaudible] to start with, the two taxes share a number of the same features, ill briefly highlight those and then run through each in more detail. Both measures fundamentally unlock the revenue that the city has been collecting for big and baby c. Since those taxes were adopted by the voters in 2018. It makes that revenue available despite litigation thats ongoing by creating a backstop tax that would go into effect, should the city lose that litigation and from which refunds could be paid. Secondly, both measures complete the retirement of the citys payroll tax and replace it with a revenue neutral increase to gross receipt rates, getting to a single tax system to the city, opposed to our current hybrid of both. Third, both measures provide permanent tax relief for Small Businesses and they provide temporary tax relief over the next several years for targeted industries. Both measures equalize rates for the information sector, effective in 2021, by moving them to the same rate schedule, the Financial Services, professional services, white collar industries. Both measures increase rates on certain sectors overtime. The timing and the level, and the breath of those increases vary. Ill talk through those. So to briefly describe and i think president yee already hit these major points. The measure that will be moved today, increase the Small Business exemption to 2 million. Secondly, the amendments today expand the interest industries that are subject to temporary tax relief in the boards measure, to include hospitality, food, services, arts, and recreation. With that expansion, the temporary tax relief closely proximates that which was originally proposed in the mayors measure. Third, reduce the level of the ultimate tax rate increase which was what was proposed two months ago. It phases those increases in over time. So rate increases in the initial version where a 30 level for Many Industries and would have gone into effect immediately in 2021. The changes here today reduce that ultimate increase to 15 to 20 percent, depending on the industry, and it phases those increases in not immediately, but beginning in 2024 and then taking steps forward in 2023 and 2024 as well. As president yee mentioned, there are measures added to the increases that delays the increases for a year if gross receipts in the city have not recovered. The amendment also extends the duration of the backstop from 10 to 20 years and as chair fewer mentioned, merges the charter baseline chain where the backstop tax into the measure. We have talked about the big and baby c backstop measure, but to recap it as you are all aware, many businesses in the city are paying big and baby c taxes. These are taxes on gross receipts for a larger company, commercial rent in the city, adopted by the voters of 2018. Were in the midst of litigation, challenging those taxes and as you know, my office has impounded funds were currently collecting should we have to pay refunds, should we lose. The measure before you create as backstop tax that solves that issue. The backstop tax which is informed very similar to the taxes established in baby c, but as a general tax would only go into effect if the Court Strikes down big and baby c. It would be replaced by a new tax. The information sector measures would be increased the rates paid by the information sector would be increased to match those paid by schedule 6. As both the president and chair fewer noted, the measure does provide additional tax relief for smaller businesses in the city. Registrations paid would be reduced. Additionally, the Small Business exemption, which is currently approximately 1 million with the increase. Under the mayors current proposal in front of you, the Small Business exemption is set at 5 billion, which would exempt other businesses from the tax. There is an exemption of an additional 3,100. Thats 20 of current taxpayers would be exempted. Both measures presented tax reli relief. The amendments to the boards version expand the universe sector to which the tax relief would be provided, and that would include manufacturing, retail, other services, hospitality, Food Services and restaurants, arts, entertainment, recreation centers. For those sectors, there would be a 50 reduction for adjusted rates on the first tax years of 2021 and 2022 and then a 25 reduction in 2023. With this change, the temporary tax reduction between you is largely similar, with the only exemption is the mayors version had economic triggers. The mayors initial proposal proposed Financial Services and Administrative Offices, those at the heart of the white collar businesses. There are significant amendments to the boards proposal today, the increase and the timing of it. In the amendments, a broader set of sectors would see increases of between 15 and 20 depending on the sector, down from a 30 increase in the initial proposal and rather than occurring in 2021, a month after the passage of the measures, these increases could now be delayed and then steppedup. So an initial step in 2022, 2023, and 2024. The last two step increases in 2023 and 2024 would be deferred by one year if the tax conditions are not met. I included the uplift and schedule by sector and appended to this report. Just to highlight some of the key revenue and spending impacts that result from the measure. The backstop tax feature in the short term would permit the city to spend 1. 5 billion over the next two years. This is comprised of 1. 2 billion that would be dedicated for Child Care Services and also the repayment of 300 million in funds to the general fund that had been advanced to those programs in the last several years. In the longer term beyond the budget period, the rate restructuring would generate ongoing revenue. There would be 20 million on full phasein, while the direct general fund would approximate 100 million. That 100 million ultimate increase does not capture the full value to the city, though, financially of the change, which would also include limiting losses in revenues from the tax base. We believe the shift will avoid the losses and obviously the spending benefits [indiscernible]. With that, i will stop and see if i can answer any questions. Colleagues, any comments or questions for the controller or for your colleagues, authors of this legislation . No comments or questions . Wow. Okay. Thats great. Supervisors, authors of this ordinance, do you have any other comments that you would like to add that perhaps mr. Rosenfield covered or you would like to go more in depth. I think mr. Rosenfield did a good job in explaining and i dont think we need to go into more details at least i dont think i do. I see supervisor walton in the queue. I want to thank you and all of my colleagues for all your hard work on this. The way everything was presented today, i know it seems like this was a simple process. I do want to thank you all for doing the hard work and being able to bring it to us in a package where everything is already set up and we have all the information that we need and appreciate your hard work. Thats great. I see supervisor mandelin in the queue. Thank you to everyone who got here. Its an important measure on our ballot and definitely needed. Thanks for your hard work. Wow, this is great. Were all in agreement. Madam clerk, lets open this up for Public Comment, items 1 to 5. Clerk yes, madam chair, i wanted to note there are six supervisors participating in this meeting. We are a special meeting of the board of supervisors. Operation, please let us know if there are any callers. Please press star three to go to the queue. Please let us know if there are any callers wanting to comment on items 1 through 5. Operator there are 10 callers in the queue. I will unmute the first caller. Im the organizer of [indiscernible] and i have children and am speaking to the proposal. We worked hard to collect signatures on the ballot [indiscernible] big businesses have captured most of the gains of the recent Economic Growth and it is time for them to pay their fair share. I was a stayathome mom before i started working and that was because of lack of child care. I you brought my daughter to work with me because my agency allowed me to do it. When i wasnt able to do that, the first payment was a shocker. It required all of my money so i had to find another option. A lot of families like mine need to work. With covid19 this is not possible. People are being asked to do more for less. We are being asked to keep doors open. The city invested in [indiscernible]. You can help us write now [indiscernible] i also anticipate that the mayor will support this because safety and the wellbeing of our children cannot wait. Thank you for your time. Clerk thank you for your comments. Next speaker, please. I am a member of [indiscernible] i live in San Francisco and i have two toddlers. Im here to talk about my experiences with child care. I appreciate all the support i heard with the fall. I struggled finding affordable, goodquality child care with my first child. The wait lists were long and i never got a call back. Then i got the surprise that i was pregnant again with my second child. So i started crunching numbers, but there was nowhere i could afford child care with two babies. To make things worse, i quit my job. My husband and i sold our home and we went to live with family to afford living. I found work to allow flexibility to work with my two kids, but when covid hit i wasnt able to do my job. I was no longer contributing to the economy or helping my family. Without child care, i couldnt go back to work. [indiscernible] its important that i keep the wellbeing of my children and my family. The first five years clerk thank you for your comments. Next speaker, please. We thank you for your expansion of the Small Business exception and an inclusion of industry sectors. These amendments are welcome and they help to reduce the negative fiscal impacts on already struggling businesses, but we are concerned about having major tax increases on the November Ballot and the making of a multiyear recession. There are more san franciscans out of work than the Great Recession of 2008. As we try to navigate the global pandemic, covid19, and the hundreds of thousands of global employees that continue to face layoffs, we must be sure we are building a stable economy. It is also imperative to note that San Franciscos economy is a big ecosystem. There will be shockwaves through our industries. We thank you for these amendments and thank you all for your time. Thank you so much. Clerk thank you for your comments. Next speaker, please. I am the director of Public Policy of the golden gait restaurant association. Were calling in to say we are very much appreciative of the work done to todays proposal. We remain concerned about the overall state of San Francisco and caution that now may not be the time to raise taxes on any business sectors. We are concerned to address the homelessness issues in San Francisco. Thank you for your time and we look forward to measures to support Small Business. Clerk thank you for your comments. Next speaker, please. I am considering child care an important need. I am chairing work for a friend of mine. In this time we need a lot of care for our children and i hope you will support us in approving these things. It sounds like the supervisors are really truly thinking about the community. I would like to thank you for your work. This is the manager of the Small Business commerce. I would like to thank you for the expansion of this for Small Businesses who have been impacted by covid19 as well as the expansion of the threshold to 2 million which includes a lot of highly vulnerable Small Businesses. While tax policy is rarely directed to injure Small Businesses, we all know that different policies can have both predictable and unforeseen circumstances for Small Businesses. Thats why its important to take care when weighing decisions even for Small Businesses. As everything is connected as an ecosystem in San Francisco, when the government has to tighten its belt and expenses rise, they have to tighten their spending, which we do need to remember can impact our Small Business community. Overall, i thank you for your consideration and narratives which are very encouraging for the support of Small Businesses in San Francisco. Im calling to say thank you for supervisors addressing this issue and taking this seriously. Child care is essential to the functioning of our society to allow our people to work and for the children to be in care with quality and education. As one speaker said before, those first five years are imperative to their future success. Thats what we do is offer that support for families and children and theyre desperate for that care and support right now. Im asking that you unlock the impounded gross receipts tax. We appreciate your support and we know you care what happens with this community with the characteristic and the community. We run a Business Incubator program to help more people become child care providers. [indiscernible] these women make minimum wage. Most of those dependant on the economy need child care. [indiscernible] expanding access to child care. There are 3,500 children on the San Francisco wait list. Ive heard that the funds will harm the Business Community and this is simply not true. Child care providers are the Business Owner owners. So support Small Businesses, we must release these funds. We thank the supervisors for bringing these items forward. I just wanted to voice my appreciation for the amendment made and in particular for those helps the retail and the arts and restaurant community. As a member of the local board, we continue to be concerned about the greater implications. The overall implications are very complex and we need to be super thoughtful before implementing any new taxes on San Francisco right now. Thank you for hearing my opinion. Clerk thank you for your comments. Next speaker, please. Hello. Thank you very much for having me [indiscernible] i want to be sure we are mindful. We are living in a time when bisss are being vilified for doing businessusinesses are bei for doing business here. My mother has been here for the last 32 years and shes someone who contributed for all these years. There is a feeling overwhelmingly that no matter what you do, youre punished for doing it, if you employ people, you feel a level of punishment. The same goes for if you have an ambition of buying an apartment or a home, you still feel that. Were in a time now of people fleeing the city and leaving the city. Im talking about people that are creating in a lot of ways the fabric of our city, the city block that we walk, the things that make San Francisco this amazing place to live. Im born and raised here, so i understand a lot of the needs of the people in my community. I do think a lot of these things are important. I would like the supervisors to think how businesses are treated in San Francisco. Clerk thank you for your comments. Next speaker, please. Good afternoon, supervisors. The Hotel Council has been devastated by covid19 pandemic and the orders that have surrounded that. We have come to a halt and our employees are not working. We appreciated the amendments in the meeting that would provide short and longterm relief for accommodations and hotels. However, many of the initiatives would hurt us at a time when were at our lowest being able to provide for our cities. Anything that would cause more taxes would be concerning. We appreciate the adjustments you made for our industry. Clerk thank you for your comments. Next speaker, please. Hello [indiscernible] im an essential worker. Ive been on the waiting list since my child was born four years ago. Im doing the best i can to support my family. Some days i have to take my daughter to work and other days i have to leave her with a family or friend. This is not the way parents should have child care. This is why i will continue to fight for all those currently and continuing to be on the waiting list. We need this funding and our lives depend on it [indiscernible] i was calling in and asking for support. After telling me story and explaining the high number of children on the waiting list and how crucial child care is, the city and we agree that child care is essential for the economic recovery. Our children are growing and they deserve access to child care that will provide a safe environment. We are asking you, please support this and help us now because child care is always essential. Thank you for taking the time to hear from the public. My name [indiscernible] all the hard work youve done to help streamline Small Business with regard to the payroll and clarifying that and making it more streamlined [indiscernible] we are cautious of raising taxes on other businesses. We need the businesses to stay in our city and we need the funding that these businesses and their employees provide. Make sure youre taking a nuanced look and we continue not to drive businesses, home owners, and businesses out of San Francisco. Thank you. Clerk thank you for your comments. Next speaker, please. I am calling in support of the executive tax because we need to support our frontline workers during the pandemic. I am the cousin of a Healthcare Worker and they have not been supported during this pandemic. We are afraid if we dont flatten the curve there will be a second wave. As a Family Member of a Healthcare Worker, i support the tax because greedy corporations because they greedy corporations need to pay their people more the overpaid executive tax can up to 140 million. We need to support our frontline workers during this pandemic. San francisco needs to be ready when the next wave hits. This is a vote in support of frontline workers. This shows that you value the working class san franciscans over corporate greed. Please support this tax. Thank you. I have been a resident of the bay area for 20 years. I work with Healthcare Workers every day and im asking you to prioritize the needs of when is during this pandemic. Big corporations are profiting while momandpop stores are shuttering. These companies will not leave San Francisco because they are being taxed a small percentage. We shouldnt stop this because were afraid they will leave. If they can pay executives Million Dollar salaries, they can pay their fair share. Cities around the country are preparing for a spike in the curve by stocking up on medical equipment and hiring First Responders and other Healthcare Workers. This is a vote in favor of Healthcare Workers. A vote in support of this tax shows that you support the hard work of everyday san franciscans over the corporate profits and their bottom line. Please support this overpaid executive tax. Thank you. I would like to remind people in the queue that we are hearing Public Comment on items 1 through 5. When you are speaking about the overpaid executive tax, that is items 6 and 7 and we are not taking Public Comment on that now. If you would like to comment on items 1 to 5, please stay in the queue, otherwise, please wait until we have introduced the item and Public Comment for items 6 and 7. We are now hearing Public Comment for items 1 through 5 only. Thank you. Im calling in because im a resident of San Francisco and a working mom. We are experiencing quite an upending of our lives during this pandemic. I wanted to say that i have been working and provided child care for a number of years and i have supported a number of organizations in the child care industry. I do wonder, however, if it is possible for the city of San Francisco to get its budget under control without increasing taxes. In the face of covid, many are fearful of a future economic downturn. Child care and Early Childhood education are absolutely important. It is important that during a downturn the city would like to squeeze us. Perhaps the supervisors could cut their salaries to cover these costs. Your proposal to tax your way out of this are essentially kicking all San Francisco working families while down. The most recent review of this demonstrates that San Francisco has a larger budget than larger cities. There is no reason for you to raise taxes, especially in an economic crisis instead of getting a handle on spending in San Francisco. Clerk thank you for your comments. Next speaker, please. Are there any other speakers . [indiscernible] im an essential worker and i am struggling because i dont have child care for my 4yearold son and i am [indiscernible] and also i want to make sure that child care is essential for the economy recovered. Its important that we get the funding [indiscernible] to spend more for child care. I support the proposition. Clerk i wanted to note that there are five callers in the queue. Thank you very much, board of supervisors and this particular committee for allowing us a chance to voice our thoughts on the action that you are about to take. Ive been a resident of San Francisco for over 20 years. I have worked in a restaurant for two years. I want to give a sense of understanding of what it is like to operate a Small Business in San Francisco. I applaud the reason for the action items that we are discussing now and the need to support child care and the other items. The pandemic has exposed that the goose that laid the golden egg is a valid metaphor for this. My heart and my wallet, frankly, has always supported those in need. The reality is the pandemic has exposed that to operate a Business Needs more than just a good heart. When we see Large Businesses leave San Francisco to put a gross receipt tax on the level that exists on these particular action items will be the wrong way to go. The reality is these businesses will not survive just because their taxes are less. They need to survive because there are customers. Clerk thank you for your comment. Next speaker, please. Madam chair, that completes the queue. Public comment is now closed. I want to thank my colleagues for reiterating this. This measure doesnt include taxes for Small Businesses, but tax relief for Small Businesses. We are very concerned about the support needed for Small Businesses. We support our Small Businesses. They are the life blood of our economy and city and they are struggling right now. All the services we put together for child care are things that our residents benefit and rely on, including our Small Businesses, Small Business owners and workers. Taking a huge hit in those things is only going to hurt our economy more broadly. I just wanted to reiterate that as im sure other supervisors would as well. Colleagues, would you like to add comments . Just a short comment. Thank you, supervisor, you hit the nail on the head there. We have used this initiative to help these businesses. If you look at it carefully, if you see the current tax that theyre paying, they would pay less in the future. There was acknowledgement of the fact by quite a few people that are worried about other issues. They understood that what we were trying to do was help the Small Businesses. Thank you. I hope the committee will make those amendments. After the amendments you have to come back to budget . Yes, it goes to a special budget and finance meeting of july 21. Thank you very much. Without further ado i also wanted to mention that our City Attorney is also that assisted us with this is available for comments. Colleagues, you should have a copy of the amendments. These amendments would expand tax relief to Small Businesses and impacted industries, specifically but exempting Small Businesses with gross receipts of 2 million or less and expanding tax relief to more entries affected by covid19 there would be a delay of tax increases to january 2022 with future increases in january 2023 and january 2024 based on economic recovery triggers. [indiscernible] finally establish reporting and look back analysis by including reporting from the controller and chief economist with treasurier to analyze the implementation of the measure called i have a rollcall vote, please. [ roll call ] [ roll call ]. Now i would like to make a motion to table items 1 and 2 and file items 4 and 5. Could i have a roll call vote, please. [ roll call ]. Can you please call items 6 and 7 together. [Initiative Ordinance business and tax regulations code tax on businesses with disproportionate executive pay] sponsors haney; ronen, walton, mar and preston motion ordering submitted to the voters an ordinance amending the business and tax regulations code to impose an additional gross receipts tax or an Administrative Office tax on businesses with a greater than 100 1 ratio of the compensation of the businesss highestpaid employee to the median compensation paid to the businesss employees based in the city; and increasing the citys appropriations limit by the amount collected under the additional tax for four years from november 3, 2020, at an election to be held on november 3, 2020. [hearing Initiative Ordinance business and tax regulations code tax on businesses with disproportionate executive pay] sponsors haney; ronen, walton, mar and preston hearing to consider the proposed Initiative Ordinance submitted by four or more supervisors to the voters for the november 3, 2020, election, entitled ordinance amending the business and tax regulations code to impose an additional gross receipts tax or an Administrative Office tax on businesses with a greater than 100 1 ratio of the compensation of the businesss highestpaid employee to the median compensation paid to the businesss employees based in the city; and increasing the citys appropriations limit by the amount collected under the additional tax for four years from november 3, 2020. We have supervisor matt haney as the speaker. Thank you so much, chair fewer, and to the committee members. Colleagues, today with my cosponsor cosponsors well have for your consideration the c. E. O. Tax. During this pandemic, americas billionaires saw their fortunes soar by 434 billion during the shelter in place. Jeff bezos and muck zuckerberg both had the biggest gains. Knees billionaire gains are billionaires becoming more billionaires. With this pandemic even as the economy and our Small Businesses grapple with the worst economic crisis in recent history, there is still tremendous wealth in our society and our city concentrated in the hands of the f few. Companies paying these out can see the cuts to essential services that we are facing as a city. Im looked at the department of Public Health and homelessness budget and the kind of cuts and what impact that would have on our city. Were just beginning that conversation of many hard choices. What we are proposing today is a simple and straightforward measure that can help us get through this crisis while also. If the measure passes any company that pays their toppaid employee 100 times more than their medium worker will have a 0. 1 surcharge added to their benefit. If the Top Executive makes 200 times more than the average employer, then its 0. 2 surcharge, 300 times, 0. 3 and so on capping at 0. 6. Our tax is modeled on a similar surcharge thats been implemented in portland, oregon, maine, washed, and nationally there are similar proposals to deal with rampant income inequality. This tax will raise up to 140 million every year which will allow the city to hire hundreds of nurses, doctors, Healthcare Workers. The Healthcare System is stretched and strained responding to emergencies, the already existing emergencies of Mental Health and addiction, but the very threatening and real pandemic that were facing as a city. This incentivizes companies to invest in their workers. Businesses can avoid paying the tax by paying their executives less or by raiding their employees wages. Companies that can afford tens of millions of dollars for salary sincere can afford to way their share in taxes. Executive daerls have risen by 900 . Big businesses all over San Francisco have the chance to be on the right side of history. This is a modest tax. Its going to go to the bestpossible use at time we need it more than ever. Its going to go to companies that are doing well and paying people a whole lot of money at a time we need a little bit more support. There are two amendments im proposing for the committee to adopt. The First Amendment adds the word managerial capturing the salary of the highestpaid executive in the company. The amendment appears on page 1, lines 6 and 17, page 2, line 25, and page 23, lines 15 through 16. Secondly, the Second Amendment caps the tax at 0. 6 instead of 1 , capping the tier at 0. 6 is a reasonable amendment adopting these amendments will not reduce the revenue range. The range will be 60 and 100 million. [indiscernible] these are the amendments im asking for the committee to adopt today. Im hoping you will support this measure. It is critical to help our economy address the needed investments. I want to thank our labor and Community Partners that have worked on this, our cosornss, and especially to the local Labor Council and all of the nurses, doctors, healthcare professionals, and front line workers for their support. I just want to clarify one thing because i know this comes up a lot. This is looking at total compensation which includes stocks and other types of compensation as it relates to the toppaid employee. That toppaid employee can be anywhere when looking at the medium salary, we are looking at that of those folks in. Thank you very much. Any comments or questions from my colleagues at all . Madam clerk, please open it up for comment. Clerk operator, can you check if there are any speakers. Can afford to pay executives millions a year can afford to pay their fair share in taxes to help us recover. The pandemic is over and cities are preparing for a spike and hiring nurses and First Responders and this measure not only raises much needed funds to fix the cracks in our health care it incentivizes companies to invest in their workers and not just executives. Business will not leave San Francisco because of this. Its not going happen. Its not true. San francisco is one of the most desirable cities in the United States for companies to be located in. A small surcharge can be avoided by investing in workers will have little to no impact on companies that can apay to pay their ceo millions of dollars. Businesses can avoid the tax by paying their executive less or simply raising employees wage. The executive tax only applies to companies who pays executives millions a year so please support supervisor haneys executive tax. Thank you for your comment. Caller hello. Im a resident of San Francisco. Im an active member of the Filipino Community Development Corporation and [indiscernible] program. I support the executive tax because i believe that big or Large Companies that can afford to pay executives billions of dollars can afford to pay their fair share to help us recover. The pandemic isnt over. Many are preparing for a spike in the curve and stocking up on medical equipment and hiring doctors and nurses and First Responders and other essential care workers. San francisco needs [indiscernible]. Executive salaries in the United States have skyrocketed by 40 but regular worker salaries have only grown by 11 . We [indiscernible] thank you and god bless. Thank you for your comment. Next speaker, please. Caller good afternoon supervisors im with the San Francisco chamber of commerce. On behalf of the chamber of commerce we appreciate the input and have seen the ceo tax and transfer tax did for the receive the same attention. We cannot have a oneoff tax we need to keep balancing the needs of where we are in the economy with the addition of new taxes. Taxes makes doing business in San Francisco difficulty. They have seen anchor businesses left and several businesses have allowed businesses to work remotely to leave to other cities and states. Further, while intended to affect Large Companies the pay doesnt exist for the larger companies. This tax will however, affect some of our more Medium Sized Companies in retail and hospitality. We have to be thoughtful of implementing more taxes during an employment crisis. Thank you for your comment. Next speaker, please. Caller hello. Im roxanna and im a registered nurse working in labor and delivery in San Francisco over 15 years and an active member of the california nurses association. I actually went to school in San Francisco all the way from prek to getting my b. S. N. And as a registered nurse i see how economic inequality impacts the health of our patients and our communities every day. San francisco is the most economically inequitable city in the country and that takes a toll on our collective health. I support taxing overpaid executives because we need this money to help support Front Line Health Care workers as we deal with the current pandemic and because San Francisco needs to be ready for the next wave. This measure raises muchneeded funds to help our health care and it also incentivizes companies to invest in their workers not just their executives. Although i can see where some companies would be hesitant, this measure would only make it so that the businesses start treating executives and employees fairly. Thank you for your time. Thank you for your comment. Next speaker, please. Caller hi, my name is deanna chan. A member of local 21 and resident of San Francisco many years and an occupational therapist for the city and county for the last nine years and have been deployed to the front line since april as an essential worker. I have been servicing the temporary housing shelter. I can tell you first hand the supplies are very low and reuse ppe as much as possible and we front line workers need help. As an essential front line worker i support the executive tax and we need the money as we deal with the pandemic head on. Its clear the pandemic is far from over and its time for all to help. As others have noted we believe Big Companies that can afford to pay executives billions every year can afford to pay their fair share in taxes to help the response. The tax only applies to companies who pay their executives millions a year. It will not affect Small Businesses. Please support supervisor haneys overpaid executive tax. Thank you from the front line. Thank you for your call. Next speaker, please. Caller im britly and ive been in district 6 all my life. Im calling to support the overpaid executive tax. I think its important we help our Health Care Workers especially due to the pandemic. They need our support in this small surcharge on massive businesses producing millions annually for a health care. I also like how it incentivizes money to raise employee wages if the businesses want to avoid the tax. Massive businesses like amazon and ceo jeff bezzos are benefiting and Health Care Workers are working to keep people alive. Thank you. Thank you for your comments. Next speaker, please. Good afternoon. My name is mr. William. Im an organizer for local 22 in San Francisco. We have Health Care Workers in california and 20,000 work in San Francisco. As a Health Care Worker representative we support the overpaid executive tax because we need to help the Health Care Workers with appropriate medical equipment during the pandemic and be able to hire more Health Care Workers. Its time those to help pay their fair share to help the San Francisco economy and to invest in San Francisco and the best way to do it is through this tax. We need the for instance board of supervisors take ownership and leadership and follow. The we are living in an a capitalist in crisis. They need do their part. We cant afford to cut 250 million to the department of Public Health in San Francisco. Please support the supervisors overpaid executive tax. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Caller hello, supervisors. Im [indiscernible] and im a member of San Franciscos [indiscernible]. I am calling today in support of the overpaid executive tax. Frankly we need the money. Were in a crisis and one thing is if a company can afford to pay millions to their executives and can certainly afford to pay their fair share to help us recover in this crisis. And from people who profit from this city and substantial resources they can help afford to pay their fair share to get us back on our feet. And we can see them avoid it by raising employee wages. Thats another option, right . Folks would be able to pay their own way. Right now cost of living so high in San Francisco and we know executives are overpaid. Maybe it will help incentivize them to behave in a new humane manner. Saying that, they can fair their fair share and make adjustments to help the rest of us and the city out. Their fair share and make adjustments to help the rest of us and the city out. Their fair share and make adjustments to help the rest of us and the city out. Their fair share and make adjustments to help the rest of us and the city out. Their fair share and make adjustments to help the rest of us and the city out. P their fair share and make adjustments to help the rest of us and the city out. A their fair share and make adjustments to help the rest of us and the city out. Y their fair share and make adjustments to help the rest of us and the city out. We have to do what we can to increase the revenue and id rather see revenue increases rather than budget cuts. We know it has a negative affect on improving the economy. It backfires. Bebest the best way to come out a crisis like this is increase spending not budget cuts to help the economy quicker. I encourage you to help support this machine measure and move it forward. Thank you. Thank you for your comments. Before we take the next speaker i want to note that there are 20 callers listening and 10 in the queue. Next speaker, please. Caller im Sarah Larsson a member of local 21. I work for the department of Public Health and were facing budget cuts and weve been under staff for a long time. Were going to need money from some place. It seems like for a long time huge corporations have gotten a lot of special deals in order to be here. Its time for them to give back. These executives can afford to pay and they should pay because theres no other city like San Francisco and i dont think that because a bunch of overpaid executives getting dinged for a little bit of money all corporations will move out. In fact im sure thats not going happen but this pandemic isnt over. We need to take decisive action. We need it now. This isnt on Small Businesses. This is for huge corporations and theres a lot of them here. Its very overwhelming when you consider the disparity and the haves and havenots and front of line workers will be called upon. Youre going to need us. Everybodys going to need us. Please help and vote for this. Thank you for your comments. Next speaker, please. Caller this is michael soto with the National Union of Health Care Workers calling in favor of this ordnance. It address the dual crises of the economic downturn and pandemic and make sure the city has the support it needs for front workers and First Responders. Many Big Companies such as those mentioned before are saving money by having workers telecommute and having offices and other facilities go unused and similarly in the Health Care Industry hmo and ppos are Bank Windfall because people are afraid to go to the doctor but theyre still collecting premiums. This is something we know big business can afford and cant afford economic inequality to increase and those with the most need to step up and help the most in this time of need. Thank you. Thank you for your comment. Next speaker, please. Caller hi, supervisors, thank you. Im John Mccormick i work in the tenderloin and wanted to call in support of this important legislation. Not cutting social services is unnecessary and thank you to the supervisors who are proposing taxes like this. Thank you so much. Thank you for your comment. Next speaker, please. Caller can you hear me . Yes, we can. Caller im Cynthia Gomes and im a research analyst. Im calling in support of the overpaid executive tax as some have commented and shared the need for resources is acute and will only continue to flow this measure raises funds and incentivizes companies to invest in workers and executive salaries in the United States over the last 30 years has skyrocketed by 940 and regular worker salaries have only grown 11 . Members of unions who work in the hotel and Hospitality Industry can tell you all too well whats that done to their standard of living. This something that say small surcharge. If Companies Choose to reinvest up their workers they can avoid the tax raising employees wages and its not a tax on Small Business businesses. We urge you to support it and thank you for your time. Thank you for your comments. Next speaker, please. Caller good afternoon im cheri chan. Im the union member for sba local 1316 and as we all know the provider essential worker for our county and community. So during the covid19 were trying our best to serve this community and take care of seniors. We love this city. We love San Francisco. However, the cost of living is extremely high. Today im asking supervisors and the mayor to stand on our side to help us to get more funding and our children and community. Downtown, i support the overpaid executive tax. Thank you, god bless you and stay safe. Thank you for your comments. Next speaker, please. Caller good afternoon. Im a San Francisco resident. Big companies can afford to pay executives millions of dollar salaries every year can afford to pay their fair share in taxes to help San Francisco recover. This measure not only helps raise funds and incentivizes companies to invest in their workers not just executives. San francisco is one of the most desirable cities for business and according to our record it has the highest density of billion airs of any city in the world thats why theres no truth businesses will leave San Francisco because of this small tax. This is not an attack on Small Businesses. It only applies to companies who pay their executives millions a year. Please support supervisor haneys overpaid executive tax. Its the right thing do. Our people need support from those who have more. Good afternoon supervisors. Thank you for taking time on this important matter today. I had conversations with some businesses and one of the businesses have recently said i wish my taxes we lower and i said to what level and he said maybe back to 198 6 then i pointed out he actually paid more taxes in 1986 than now in 2019. Its easy to avoid this tax. I think corporations have gotten too greedy. Theyve gotten so many breaks at the federal level and various state levels and not participating fully in everything they take out of the economy globally. We dont tend to look at the infrastructure when businesses come into town. They come into San Francisco with a full vetted infrastructure, water, electricity, all this stuff they dont invest in. They just take. And i think that its time for them to pay their fair share to get us through this pandemic. It is their moral responsibility and its getting a little old. I get it. Were doing things to help Small Businesses along. Theyre exempt from this tax. Large companies have a responsibility to help the communities theyre in and not just take out please, support this initiative. The Labor Council is 100 behind this initiative and thanks for your time, today. Thank you for your comment. Next speaker, please. Caller my name is teresa rutherfo rutherford. I with my coworkers and front line workers support supervisor haneys overpaid executive tax measure. This is a matter of equity and a matter of Corporate Responsibility because also its a matter that businesses use the resources of the communities they are existing in and built their resources off the backs of the community. Usually when they move into a community its already fully structured. Everything is there for them. The roads, the water, the Public Servants ready do their bidding. They come and enjoy and build off that. They dont bring anything in except to come and enjoy and benefit from the name and from the value of living in one of the most well known, well sought after cities like San Francisco. Business use resources of the responsibility have a responsibility to give back to the community otherwise all their doing is abufg abusing and taking advantage of the city and the people that do the work. They have a Corporate Responsibility. They have a social responsibility and it is equitable. Its shameful ceos make 940 on their salaries while front line workers who do the job, who deliver the services, front line workers in this pandemic who put their families on the line and their lives every day barely make 11 over 30 years. Right now in the city of San Francisco we are being asked as front line workers again to give up the little money we have, the little salaries we earn where the ceos are not being asked to do anything. So right now, the way to go and the way to do this and the way to bring equity and put your money where your mouth is is to hold the ceos accountable, is to have them give back to the communities they have lived off and benefitted off. I fully support the overpaid ceo tax measure and make it work and its not just about workers but about San Francisco and San Francisco thriving and it only thrives when some of the highest paid people benefiting in the world give their fair share and stop raping the community of its resources. Thank you. Thank you for your comments. Next speaker, please. Caller hello. Im a member of c. N. A. Im a delivery nurse at Kaiser Hospital for the last 40 years. During that time ive been the attending nurse between 5,000 and 6,000 babies. Thats my best estimate. I am in favor of this proposed tax. Its very specific and i dont see it will harm a huge number of people because there are not a ton of executives making more than 100 times than what theyre median worker is. What id like to mention is the fact that some will use possibly used to fix some of the cracks in the. Cracks in the. One of the cracks in the i can see though i dont like to speak abo about it because its embarrassing and sad and humiliating is i have an adult son im paying 800 a month to pay an insurance policy for him with kaiser. Right now my income has dropped 30 of the usual amount per month but i continued carrying this insurance policy for him because my son sadly is a drug addict. So my great fear is that should he need attention or decides to come out of his denial and get treatment, hell have nowhere to turn. So i think there are plenty of cracks in the cracks in the we can look at and share this money in a way that would help everyone. When you help the least of your brethren youre helping everyone. Thank you. Thank you for your comment. Next speaker, please. Caller i know a couple callers said this would not adversely affect Small Businesses but that is not the case. An impact on any part of our Business Community can shake our entire local economy. We have around 95,000 businesses here in San Francisco. A huge am of those are Small Businesses who rely deeply on our larger employers and the employees that come and patronize our vibrant and diverse Small Business community in San Francisco. Number one the impact i heard businesses talk about during covid19 might be the impact from losing the large employers and their employees in our city when theyve gone to work from home. You may think its your daily sandwich that supports the little shop down the way but theres a tight margin of payrolls and taxes and fee is the catering order from the company down the road. Ironically this is not going to be just the Top Companies who pay the tax. Theyre compensation ratios in San Francisco, as we all know, were the broad base of compensated tech employees which can leave and this will fact brick and Motor Companies who have already been drastically impacted by covid19. The number one Small Businesses need to provide are customers. We know who they are. Theyre the employees of large employers and the folks who have these good paying jobs to pay the high prices of San Francisco often created by the regulations we have here. We cannot continue to think San Francisco is so appealing that businesses will not leave. We already saw businesses start to recognize this negative cost benefit in San Francisco and begin to leave this last year. We are experiencing unprecedented unemployment in San Francisco and this is absolutely not the time to be implementing hasty oneoff and unprecedented taxes. Thank you for your time and consideration. Thank you for your comments. Next speaker, please. Caller hi. This is Rudy Gonzalez with San Francisco Labor Council. I want to thank the chair of the committee, supervisor fewer for her leadership and coauthors and cosponsors. I heard a fair amount of context. I think i would agree with the last person that commented from the chamber. I think a smart tax like the overpaid executive compensation tax actually will chip away at the inequality and the simple fact is minimum wage earner and company in San Francisco can have a ceo making upwards of 3 million and so they have a choice to make. They can help the taxes and attic inequality that draws on resources especially during a Public Health pandemic and raise the wages of workers and put money in the pockets of those workers that generate and stimulate the local company and help the same Small Businesses. The alternative is they could decide to keep their large executive compensation and contribute as an organization to the very services and City Infrastructure that they are going to need to successfully recover and that spans Public Health and infrastructure and all the various aspects of the city architecture. I think its a smart, progressive way to chip away at income inequality and smartly resourcing and focussing funds to desperately needed City Services to no surprise unfortunately with the city framework we have thousand of f. T. E. Vacancies that are plaguing short staffing and high degree of work for our current staff and we just take it as a given that these noble Public Workers will shift right into the service mode and [indiscernible] and all the critical needs we have as a community. If you support this tax thank you for your comment, sir. Next speaker, please. Caller madame chair, thats the queue. Thank you very much. Any more comments . Supervisor hanney. I want to thank all the callers who just expressed their opinions and mostly support. All the members of the community. I also want to shout out all of the essential workers and their representatives who called in. I think weve had a huge amount of support for this measure. Some essential workers, front line workers and Health Care Workers and Hotel Workers on the front line who are protecting us and saving lives and they know that even now we dont have enough services, enough staffing ratios, enough support for them. The idea that they would be asked to take a greater hit and they and their colleagues serve more people at longer hours as the same time we have dozens and dozens of billionaires in our city and have Companies Making tens of billions more even during this pandemic is unimaginable. This is not a hasty or onetime or oneoff, im not sure what that means. Its a permanent tax in that were going to pass it and the voters approve it it will be a permanent tax and a targeted tax only on companies who are able to pay their executives tens of millions of dollars. I guess everybody wants to hide behind Small Businesses. These are larger businesses doing very well and paying their executives over 100 times that of their need door median worker. Its a modest tax at a time when our city needs it more than of. When i talk to Small Businesses, what they say is they want to see us have effective and adequate City Services that address Mental Health, street cleaning, homelessness and it shunt shouldnt be on their backs. The services should be delivered and provided by those who can afford it and doing well and asking for a little bit more help from them to address the crises and the pandemic and not balance every budget and every cut on the backs of our heroes who are saving lives right now. We should have their back and should ask a little bit more from people doing very well. With that i hope you take the amendment and move this measure. Thank you very much. So Public Comment is closed on item 6 and 7. I think we have some amendments we should vote on so id like to vote to move those amendments. Can i have a roll call vote, please. Clerk yes. [roll call] id like to make a motion to move this as amended to be continued to the next regular budget meeting on wednesday july 22. Could i have a roll call vote, please. Clerk on that motion. [ro [roll call] you have three ayes. A motion to file item 7. Clerk on that motion. [roll call] you have three ayes. Thank you. Madame clerk please call item 8. Clerk the proposed initiative to the voters for the november 3, 2020 Salt Lake City entitled business and tax resolutions code stockbased compensation payroll expense paid at companies and publicly traded groups to increase the citys appropriations limit by the amount collected under the tax for four years from november 3, 2020. Members of the public who wish to provide Public Comment should call 1415665001. Metting id 146 320 7645. We have supervisor gordon mar or his legislative aide. The floor is yours. Thank you for hearing this. Im a legislative aide for supervisor mar. He not able to be here as is also serving [indiscernible] meeting today as well. The act has already been submitted to the ballot with the signatures of members of supervisors and is not subject to the vote in committee today and as a policy has been in discussion and consideration in various forms over a year now. Well try to keep this informational hearing brief today. We proposed the measure for a simple reason. We cannot balance our budget or close our multiyear deficit on the backs of city workers or on the backs of the vulnerable communities who rely on our programs and servic [technical difficulties] and the proposal was last year referred to as an i. P. O. Tax. To be clear its not a tax on i. P. O. S. Its a tax on compensation and most clearly understood and described as such. For the revenue estimate on the controllers file this would raise between 50 million and 150 million annually in new revenue for the city and county of San Francisco. It does this by restoring 2. 15 the tax rate public Companies Pay on stockbased compensation. This is similar to a Corporate Tax rate cuts in the sector. Stock base compensation is on the value of equity interest and stock, stock options, restricted stock, restricted stock units, stock as a result of Employee Stock purchase plans. Corporations that currently pay the tax and have stock based compensations as part of their expenses would face a tax increase on the stockbased compensation. Corporations paying the Administrative Office tax are also subject to this tax and the tax would only apply to Public Companies and i do want to note the measure has been written and could go into effect regardless of what else is on the ballot in november. Just to summit up, what we are taxing here is not new. Stock compensation is a form of payroll and already taxed and the rate were proposing is also not new. Its the same rate the companies paid a decade ago not only on stockbased compensation but all forms of payroll at that time. Were proposing to restore the rate for stockbased compensation and theres a federal tax break on stockbased compensation. Not only are the companies not paying a rate locally they use to it get a break federally. And with the proposal we believe and want to say that fiscal responsibility doesnt require us to be [indiscernible] it requires us to be creative in advancing Revenue Strategies to protect our budget in the long term and address the economic inequality and on fairness from homelessness to Housing Access to hunger. That means asking corporations most well off the most resilient to the current crises who too often have been given breaks in policy after policy to pay their fair share. Thats what the stock compensation tax does. Im happy to answer any questions but id like to thank supervisors roanin and peskin and [indiscernible] and others for their work in preparing this measure. Thank you. Thank you very much. Seeing no colleagues in the queue for questions or comments, lets open this up for Public Comment. Can we have Public Comment on item number 8. Operations is checking to see if theres any callers in the queue. Operations, kindly let us know if there are any callers that are ready. If youve not already done so press star 3 to be added to the queue. For those already on hold please continue the wait until the indicates you have been unmuted for your comments. Please let us know if theres callers wishing to comment. Madame chair, there are no callers in the queue. Public comment on item number 8 is now closed. If theres no comments and none in the queue, id like to make a motion to file this item. May i have a roll call, please. [roll call] there are three ayes. Is there any more business before us today . Clerk madame chair, we have no further business. We are adjourned. Thank you. Roughly five years, i was working as a high school teacher, and i decided to take my students on a surfing field trip. The light bulb went off in my head, and i realized i could do much more for my students taking them surfing than i could as their classroom teacher, and that is when the idea for the city surf project was born. Working with kids in the ocean that arent familiar with this space is really special because youre dealing with a lot of fear and apprehension but at the same time, a lot of excitement. When i first did it, i was, like, really scared, but then, i did it again, and i liked it. Well get a group of kids who have just never been to the beach, are terrified of the idea, who dont like the beach. Its too cold out, and its those kid that are impossible to get back out of the water at the end of the day. Over the last few years, i think weve had at least 40 of our students participate in the city surf project. Surfing helped me with, like, how to swim. Weve start off with about two to four sessions in the pool before actually going out and surfing. Swimming at the pool just helps us with, like, being, like, comfortable in the water and being calm and not being all not being anxious. So when we started the city surf project, one of the things we did was to say hey, this is the way to earn your p. E. Credits. Just getting kids to go try it was one of our initial challenges for the first year or two. But now that weve been doing it three or four years, we have a group of kids thats consistent, and the word has spread, that its super fun, that you learn about the ocean. Starting in the morning, you know, i get the vehicles ready, and then, i get all the gear together, and then, i drive and go get the kids, and we take them to a local beach. We usually go to linda mar, and then occasionally ocean beach. We once did a special trip. We were in capitola last year, and it was really fun. We get in a circle and group stretch, and we talk about specific safety for the day, and then, we go down to the water. Once we go to the beach, i dont want to go home. I cant change my circumstances at home, but i can change the way i approach them. Our program has definitely been a way for our students to find community and build friends. I dont really talk to friends, so i guess when i started doing city surf, i started to, like, get to know people more than i did before, and people that i didnt think id like, like, ended up being my best friends. Its a group sport the way we do it, and with, like, close camaraderie, but everybodys doing it for themselves. Its great, surfing around, finding new people and making new friendships with people throughout surfing. It can be highly developmental for students to have this time where they can learn a lot about themselves while negotiating the waves. I feel significantly, like, calmer. It definitely helps if im, like, feeling really stressed or, like, feeling really anxious about surfing, and i go surfing, and then, i just feel, like, im going to be okay. It gives them resiliency skills and helps them build selfconfidence. And with that, they can use that in other parts of their lives. I went to bring amy family o the beach and tell them what i did. I saw kids open up in the ocean, and i got to see them connect with other students, and i got to see them fail, you know, and get up and get back on the board and experience success, and really enjoy themselves and make a connection to nature at the same time. For some kids that are, like, resistant to, like, being in a Mentorship Program like this, its they want to surf, and then later, theyll find out that theyve, like, made this community connection. I think they provided level playing fields for kids to be themselves in an open environment. For kids to feel like i can go for it and take a chance that i might not have been willing to do on my own is really special. We go on 150 surf outings a year. Thats yearround programming. Weve seen a tremendous amount of youth face their fears through surfing, and that has translated to growth in other facets of their lives. I just think the biggest thing is, like, that they feel like that they have something that is really cool, that theyre engaged in, and that we, like, care about them and how theyre doing, like, in general. What i like best is they really care about me, like, im not alone, and i have a group of people that i can go to, and, also, surfing is fun. Were creating surfers, and were changing the face of surfing. The feeling is definitely akin to being on a roller coaster. Its definitely faster than i think you expect it to be, but its definitely fun. It leaves you feeling really, really positive about what that kids going to go out and do. I think its really magical almost. At least it was for me. It was really exciting when i caught my first wave. I felt like i was, like it was, like, magical, really. When they catch that first wave, and their first lights up, you know their face lights up, you know you have them hooked. I was on top of the world. Its amazing. I felt like i was on top of the world even though i was probably going two miles an hour. It was, like, the scariest thing id ever done, and i think it was when i got hooked on surfing after is our United States constitution requires every ten years that america counts every human being in the United States, which is incredibly important for many reasons. Its important for preliminary representation because if Political Representation because if we under count california, we get less representatives in congress. Its important for San Francisco because if we dont have all of the people in our city, if we dont have all of the folks in california, california and San Francisco stand to lose billions of dollars in funding. Its really important to the city of San Francisco that the federal government gets the count right, so weve created count sf to motivate all sf count to motivate all citizens to participate in the census. For the immigrant community, a lot of people arent sure whether they should take part, whether this is something for u. S. Citizens or whether its something for anybody whos in the yUnited States, and it is something for everybody. Census counts the entire population. Weve given out 2 million to over 30 communitybased organizations to help people do the census in the communities where they live and work. Weve also partnered with the Public Libraries here in the city and also the Public Schools to make sure there are informational materials to make sure the folks do the census at those sites, as well, and weve initiated a campaign to motivate the citizens and make sure they participate in census 2020. Because of the language issues that many Chinese Community and families experience, there is a lot of mistrust in the federal government and whether their private information will be kept private and confidential. So its really important that communities like bayviewhunters point participate because in the past, theyve been under counted, so what that means is that funding that should have gone to these communities, it wasnt enough. Were going to help educate people in the tenderloin, the multicultural residents of the tenderloin. You know, any one of our given blocks, theres 35 different languages spoken, so we are the original u. N. Of San Francisco. So its our job is to educate people and be able to familiarize themselves on doing this census. You go online and do the census. Its available in 13 languages, and you dont need anything. Its based on household. You put in your address and answer nine simple questions. How many people are in your household, do you rent, and your information. Your name, your age, your race, your gender. Everybody is 2,000 in funding for our child care, housing, food stamps, and medical care. All of the residents in the city and county of San Francisco need to be counted in census 2020. If youre not counted, then your community is underrepresented and will be underserved. First its always the hardest and when they look back they really wont see you, but its the path that youre paving forward for the next one behind you that counts. Hi, my name is jajaida durden and im the acting superintendent for the bureau of forestry and i work for public works operations. And im over the landscaping, the shop and also the arborist crew. And some tree inspectors as well. I have been with the city and county of San Francisco for 17 years. And i was a cement mason, that was my first job. When i got here i thought that it was too easy. So i said one day ill be a supervisor. And when i run this place it will be ran different. And i i didnt think that it wod happen as fast as it did, but it did. And i came in 2002 and became a supervisor in 2006. And six months later i became the permanent supervisor over the shop. With all of those responsibilities and the staff youre also dealing with different attitudes and you have to take off one hat and put on another hat and put on another hat. And shes able shes displayed that she can carry the weight with all of these different hats and still maintain the respect of the director, the Deputy Director and all of the other people that she has to come in contact with. Shes a natural leader. I mean with her staff, her staff thinks highly of her. And the most important thing is when we have things that happen, a lot of emergencies, shes right by me and helps me out every time that i have asked. My inspiration is when i was a young adult was to become a fire woman. Well, i made some wrong decisions and i ended up being incarcerated, starting young and all the way up to an adult. When i was in jail they had a Little Program called Suppers Program and i supers program, and i met strong women in there and they introduced me to construction. I thought that the Fire Department would turn me down because i had a criminal history. So i looked into options of what kind of construction i could do. While i was in jail. And the program that i was in, they retrained us on living and how to make the right decisions and i chose construction. And cement mason didnt require a High School Diploma at that time so i figured i could do that. When i got out of jail they had a program in the philmore area and i went there. My first day out i signed up and four days later i started to work and i never looked back. I was an apprentice pouring concrete. And my first job was mount zion Emergency Hospital which is now ucsf. And every day that i drive by ucsf and i look at the old mount zion emergency, i have a sense of pride knowing that i had a part of building that place. Yeah, i did. I graduated as an apprentice and worked on a retrofit for city hall. I loved looking at that building and i take big pride in knowing that i was a part of that retrofit. My first for formen job was a 40 Story Building from the ground up. And its a predominantly male industry and most of the times people underestimate women. Im used to it though, its a challenge for me. As a female youre working with a lot of guys. So when they see a woman, first they dont think that the woman is in charge and to know that shes a person that is in charge with operations, i think that its great, because its different. Its not something i mean, not only a female but the only female of color. I was the first female finisher in the cement shop and i was the first crew supervisor, in the shop as a woman. When i became a two, the supervisors would not help me. In the middle, theyd call me a rookie, an apprentice and a female trying to get somewhere that she dont belong. Oh, it was terrible. It was terrible. I didnt have any support from the shop. The ones who said they supported me, they didnt, they talked about me behind my back. Sometimes i had some crying, a lot of crying behind doors, not in public. But i had a lot of mentors. My mentor i will call and would pick up the phone and just talk, talk, talk, please help me. What am a i going to do . Hang in there. It was frustrating and disheartening, it really was. But what they didnt understand is that because they didnt help me i had to learn it. And then probably about a year later, thats when i started to lay down the rules because i had studied them and i learned them and it made me a good supervisor and i started to run the ship the way that i wanted to. It was scary. But the more i saw women coming through the shop, i saw change coming. I knew that it was going to come, but i didnt know how long it would take. It was coming. In the beginning when i first came here and i was the first woman here as a finisher, to see the change as it progressed and for me to become a permanent assistant superintendent over the cement shop right now, thats my highlight. I can look down at my staff and see the diversity from the women to the different coaches in here and know that no one has to ever go through what i went through coming up. And i foster and help everyone instead of pushing them away. Ill talk to women and tell them they can make it and if they need any help, come talk to me. And they com knock on my door ad ask how i move up and how i get training. Im always encouraging to go to school and encourage them to take up some of the training with d. P. W. And i would tell them to hold strong and understand that things that we go through today that are tough makes you stronger for tomorrow. Although we dont like hearing it at the time that were going through all of this stuff, it helps you in the long run to become a better woman and a person were here to raise awareness and money and fork for a good accuse. We have this incredible gift probably the widest range of restaurant and count ii destines in any district in the city right here in the mission intricate why dont we capture that to support the mission youths going to college thats for the food for thought. We didnt have a signature font for our orientation thats a 40yearold organization. Mission graduates have helped me to develop special as an individual theyve helped me figure out and provide the tools for me that i need i feel successful in life their core above emission and goal is in line with our values. The ferraris yes, we made 48 thousand they were on top of that its a nobrainer for us. Were in and fifth year and be able to expand out and tonight is your ungrammatical truck food for thought. Food truck for thought is an opportunity to eat from a variety of different vendor that are supporting the mission graduates by coming and representing at the parks were giving a prude of our to give people the opportunity to get an education. People come back and can you tell me and enjoy our food. All the vendor are xooment a portion of their precedes the money is going back in whats the best thing to do in terms of moving the needle for the folks we thought Higher Education is the tool to move young people. Im also a College Student i go to berkley and 90 percent of our folks are staying in college thats 40 percent hire than the afternoon. Im politically to clemdz and ucla. Just knowing were giving back to the community. Especially the Spanish Speaking population it hits home. People get hungry why not eat and give watching. Youre watching coping with covid19 with chris manners. Todays special guest is julie kirschbaum. Hi. Im chris manners. Youre watching coping with covid19. Today, im speaking with the executive director of the sfmta. Thank you and welcome to the show. Thank you for having me. Can we begin by talking about the services that have been suspended and there have been changes to the services that are still running . Absolutely. Weve had to make really significant changes to our services in response to covid19. Initially going down to as few as 17 routes. These are routes that people use to get to work or the hospital, Grocery Stores, really to make the most essential trips that are needed throughout this process. Weve been fortunate over the last, say, five or six weeks, that our Staffing Levels have gotten better, and as weve increased our cleaning capacity, that weve been able to add some Community Services back. Weve added a shuttle on pacific avenue, which is helping seniors get to Grocery Stores in chinatown. Weve added a community inline bus in ingleside, and weve been adding more service to our core network. Our corridors like mission street, potrero near s. F. General, and really needing increasingly more and more service in order to prevent spacing and keep spacing and prevent crowding on the bus. Thank you. What measures have you been taking to prevent passengers on the bus . Your safety has been our top priority and is guiding everything that we do. The most critical thing that were doing is the mask requirement, where were requiring people, if youre going to ride muni, to do it safely, protecting yourself and others from germs. Weve also implemented back door boarding, so except for our customers with disabilities that will need the support of the front door, the ramp, or the leader, were asking customers to enter from the back to give extra spacing to our operators. Weve provided operators with all of the protective equipment that they need to do the job safely, including gloves and masks, and were really fortunately that our bus fortunate that our buses are equipped with a plexi glass door that creates an operating space for our operators. And some of Services Like the cable car historic trolleys we dont have that same protection, we suspended early on in this process. We want our operators to have the physical separation that they need to stay safe on the road. Absolutely. So how have you been managing physical distancing on Public Transportation . What happens if a bus gets full . Great question. We have reduced the number of people that we consider a bus to be crowded, so heading into this, we might have had 70 or 80 people on the bus. Now, its closer to 20. We also are monitoring our passenger loads. Both our operators are monitoring them as well as were monitoring them remotely from our Transportation Management center. If the bus does get too crowded, the operators have a dropoff only sign, and they stop picking passengers up until enough exit the vehicle. It might be a little bit inconvenient if youre waiting for a bus and it doesnt stop to pick you up, but theres another one coming behind it so we can make sure that you have social distancing throughout this process. What other ways have you been letting passengers and residents know about these changes and new policies . Weve been using all methods to keep customers informed about all of these changes. Weve put up almost 2,000 signs and posters at our bus stops in multiple languages, letting people know when routes have been eliminated, when hours have changed, when service has changed. Weve also been putting it up through social media and neighborhood groups, and also really relying on the media and press to notify customers about changing. We want the public to know what to expect in this really unique and unusual time to make things as convenient as possible. Quite right, yes. Other than the operators themselves, i know you have a very large support staff. Have you made changes at your muni facilities, as well. Sfmta has 29 facilities, and enhancing safety at those facilities has really been a team effort. We have an amazing custodial crew thats been doing deep cleanings. We were able to take staff that had been cleaning the subway stations and dedicate them to our facilities. We have also seen staff at every level jump in and help with daily cleanings in places like common areas, desks, tools. Everyone is pitching in to wipe stuff down, which makes a big difference. We are proud of the fact that we havent had any clusters of staff who have had the virus or really any examples of staff catching it from each other, and we feel its because of the steps that were taking to keep people safe at work. Were also taking ideas from everywhere in the organization. That includes safety briefings, rather than doing them in a small room, doing them outside, in a parking lot. In order to get to job sites, staff had previously taken three or four people in a city truck. Now, were taking them in a bus so they can actually space out during the trip to the site. Oh, thats great stuff. When we look at the Transportation System as a whole, what additional steps have been taken to encourage people to consider alternative forms of transit. We have been looking at it as a system in part because the bus system is doing less than it has in the past because we have fewer routes and because we have fewer people riding. One example is our e. T. C. Program, which is a taxibased program that seniors and people with disabilities can sign up for and use a taxi for essential trips at a highly discounted rate. Were also looking at a Transit System that people can get out walking or biking. How are we planning on next steps as restrictions ease and we move into phase two and eventually phases three and four . I think probably our biggest thing that were getting ready for right now is the start of school in august, and make sure that were ready, not only to accommodate all of the general activities, like going to restaurants and recreation, but also getting kids to school safely. Were also looking at what are other cities doing around the world that we can learn from, and thats where we are forming our work, as well. We are really fortunate that we had an opportunity to skype with taipei, a city thats had a lot of success addressing the virus. The mayor actually joined the skype call, and one of the things that they shared with us, their biggest success has come with 100 compliance masks on mass transit. In other cases, monitoring for temperatures and really making sure that people were riding, that they were riding healthy, so were trying to model and apply those best practices to our system and learn as much as we can through this process. Well, thats fantastic information. I really appreciate you coming on the show, miss kirschbaum. Thank you for the time youve given us today. Thank you. Thanks again. Well, thats it for this episode. Well be back with more covid19 relates information shortly. Youve been watching coping with covid19. Im chris manners. Thanks for watching. Growing up in San Francisco has been way safer than growing up other places we we have that bubble, and its still that bubble that its okay to be whatever you want to. You can let your free flag fry he fly here. As an adult with autism, im here to challenge peoples idea of what autism is. My journey is not everyones journey because every autistic child is different, but theres hope. My background has heavy roots in the bay area. I was born in san diego and adopted out to San Francisco when i was about 17 years old. I bounced around a little bit here in high school, but ive always been here in the bay. We are an inclusive preschool, which means that we cater to emp. We dont turn anyone away. We take every child regardless of race, creed, religious or ability. The most common thing i hear in my adult life is oh, you dont seem like you have autism. You seem so normal. Yeah. Thats 26 years of really, really, really hard work and i think thises that i still do. I was one of the first open adoptions for an lgbt couple. They split up when i was about four. One of them is partnered, and one of them is not, and then my biological mother, who is also a lesbian. Very queer family. Growing up in the 90s with a queer family was odd, i had the bubble to protect me, and here, i felt safe. I was bullied relatively infrequently. But i never really felt isolated or alone. I have known for virtually my entire life i was not suspended, but kindly asked to not ever bring it up again in first grade, my desire to have a sex change. The school that i went to really had no idea how to handle one. One of my parents is a little bit gender nonconforming, so they know what its about, but my parents wanted my life to be safe. When i have all the neurological issues to manage, that was just one more to add to it. I was a weird kid. I had my core group of, like, very tight, like, three friends. When we look at autism, we characterize it by, like, lack of eye contact, what i do now is when im looking away from the camera, its for my own comfort. Faces are confusing. Its a lack of mirror neurons in your brain working properly to allow you to experience empathy, to realize where somebody is coming from, or to realize that body language means that. At its core, autism is a social disorder, its a neurological disorder that people are born with, and its a big, big spectrum. It wasnt until i was a teenager that i heard autism in relation to myself, and i rejected it. I was very loud, i took up a lot of space, and it was because mostly taking up space let everybody else know where i existed in the world. I didnt like to talk to people really, and then, when i did, i overshared. I was very difficult to be around. But the friends that i have are very close. I click with our atypical kiddos than other people do. In experience, i remember when i was five years old and not wanting people to touch me because it hurt. I remember throwing chairs because i could not regulate my own emotions, and it did not mean that i was a bad kid, it meant that i couldnt cope. I grew up in a family of behavioral psychologists, and i got development cal developmental psychology from all sides. I recognize that my experience is just a very small picture of that, and not everybodys in a position to have a family thats as supportive, but theres also a community thats incredible helpful and wonderful and open and there for you in your moments of need. It was like two or three years of conversations before i was like you know what . Im just going to do this, and i went out and got my prescription for hormones and started transitioning medically, even though i had already been living as a male. I have a twoyearold. The person who im now married to is my husband for about two years, and then started gaining weight and wasnt sure, so i we went and talked with the doctor at my clinic, and he said well, testosterone is basically birth control, so theres no way you can be pregnant. I found out i was pregnant at 6. 5 months. My whole mission is to kind of normalize adults like me. I think ive finally found my calling in early intervention, which is here, kind of what we do. I think the access to irrelevant care for parents is intentionally confusing. When i did the procespective search for autism for my own child, it was confusing. We have a place where children can be children, but its very confusing. I always out myself as an adult with autism. I think its helpful when you know where can your child go. How im choosing to help is to give children that would normally not be allowed to have children in the same respect, kids that have three times as much work to do as their peers or kids who do odd things, like, beach therapy. How do speech therapy. How do you explain that to the rest of their class . I want that to be a normal experience. I was working on a certificate and kind of getting think Early Childhood credits brefore i started working here, and we did a section on transgender inclusion, inclusion, which is a big issue here in San Francisco because we attract lots of queer families, and the teacher approached me and said i dont really feel comfortable or qualified to talk about this from, like, a cisgendered straight persons perspective, would you mind talking a little bit with your own experience, and im like absolutely. So im now one of the guest speakers in that particular class at city college. I love growing up here. I love what San Francisco represents. The idea of leaving has never occurred to me. But its a place that i need to fight for to bring it back to what it used to be, to allow all of those little kids that come from really unsafe environments to move somewhere safe. What ive done with my life is work to make all of those situations better, to bring a little bit of light to all those kind of issues that were still having, hoping to expand into a little bit more of a Resource Center, and this Resource Center would be more those new parents who have gotten that diagnosis, and we want to be this one centralized place that allows parents to breathe for a second. I would love to empower from the bottom up, from the kid level, and from the top down, from the teacher level. So many things that i would love to do that are all about changing peoples minds about certain chunts, like the Transgender Community or the autistic community. I would like my daughter to know theres no wrong way to go through life. Everybody experiences pain and grief and sadness, and that all of those things are temporary. This is now called to order. Ms. Collins . Mr. Cook . Mr. Cook here. Ms. Lam here. Vice president lopez here. President sanchez here. Ms. Collins . Thats it. We do have two new student delegates. I dont know if theyre with us. Its ms. Heinz foster. Here