Ensuring a Full Recovery For San Francisco’s Economy

Businesses are key to San Francisco’s economic recovery. For San Francisco to thrive, businesses need to succeed and feel comfortable investing financial and intellectual capital in the city. San Francisco must be a place that embraces small and large businesses alike—they’re crucial to creating a vibrant city, employing our residents, and funding the city budget.

But San Francisco’s current challenges and the city’s current leadership have disproportionately impacted San Francisco’s business community—the city’s onerous taxes are deterring companies from renting office space. San Francisco cannot afford to tangle businesses in red tape, especially when so many companies now prefer remote work.
Office space, public safety and foot traffic are linked—as they drop, so do building values and tax revenues. As revenues decline, city services are cut. For San Francisco to recover from COVID’s economic devastation, elected officials must change their perspective on attracting corporate business to downtown San Francisco. The city needs to reduce or restructure tax rates to remain competitive with neighboring cities—at the bare minimum, it needs to create a tax structure that doesn’t penalize the type of business the city wants to attract.