Reigning in Business Taxes Key to Economic Recovery

The San Francisco Office of the Controller this week (July 12) released a study echoing the findings of an analysis the Bay Area Council Economic Institute produced last year: Business taxes are significantly higher in San Francisco than in the rest of the region. A large tech company could be on the hook for more than 20 times the local tax burden they would face in Mountain View, and more than 1,300 times the burden they would face in Sunnyvale. 

The Bay Area Council has been ringing this alarm for years, noting that not only does San Francisco’s incredibly high tax burden threaten to drive business from the city (see item below), but it puts the city budget on shaky footing. The city is highly dependent on just a few large employers, and losing any one of them could have a significant destabilizing impact on the city’s budget. 

The Council strongly supports Mayor Breed’s tax reform proposal, which would offer tax discounts to new businesses opening offices in San Francisco and would diversify the city’s tax base. We urge the Board of Supervisors to approve the plan to ensure that San Francisco remains a viable home for business into the future.