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If San Francisco Tech Titans Don't Like Taxes, Mayor Says They Should ‘Vote’

If San Francisco Tech Titans Don't Like Taxes, Mayor Says They Should ‘Vote’

(Bloomberg) -- You can’t blame San Francisco’s tech-industry workers if they feel a bit unwanted. They’re widely blamed for stratospheric housing prices, rising homelessness and gentrifying away the city’s quirky charm. They’re also the targets of new taxes eyed by the city’s board of supervisors.

One proposal would levy a new gross-receipts tax on companies that pay their chief executives more than 100 times the median compensation employees receive, while another would target employees reaping the benefits of initial public offerings by taxing their stock-based compensation. Both would need too be placed on the ballot and approved by voters in the famously progressive city.

Asked about these taxes and how to avoid sending a message to tech that it’s unwanted, San Francisco Mayor London Breed, during an onstage interview at Bloomberg’s Players Technology Summit in San Francisco Thursday, said she can’t necessarily control what the board of supervisors does.

But, she added,”folks in the tech industry need to register and vote. They need to become more politically engaged. That’s one way to help make sure we get good people elected to public office.”

To contact the reporters on this story: Romy Varghese in San Francisco at rvarghese8@bloomberg.net;Brad Stone in San Francisco at bstone12@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Elizabeth Campbell at ecampbell14@bloomberg.net, William Selway

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