The Bay Guardian recently put an Editorial on a new and higher taxes to be placed on the ballot next year. In its editorial entitled, “Time for Serious Budget Reform”, the Guardian states: “[T]here is simply no way to close a deficit this large [expected to be about $520 million] without new taxes. That’s just reality, and anyone who denies it is refusing to face facts.”

The Bay Guardian goes on to recommend that the city’s tax structure be overhauled “to change the way the city collects money” and calls for the Board of Supervisors to do it, if the Mayor won’t.

The Guardian is recommending that an additional $250 million be collected annually from businesses and wealthy individuals. How? Replace the current flat (payroll) business tax with a “progressive gross receipts tax that charges the biggest companies a higher percentage”, a “properly written utility users tax that (again) would hit big companies that use a lot of power”, and a city income tax, which would hit all the commuters “who use city services but don’t pay city taxes.”

Nothing is said in the editorial about the need to trim San Francisco’s bloated bureaucracy or its inflated salaries and benefits, or the need to relax its restrictive work rules that keep costs sky high. No. It’s simply this: the private sector must pay more to the public sector because “San Francisco is a rich city. By millennial standards, it’s one of the richest cities ever, in one of the richest civilizations ever.”

Source: SFBG Editorial: Time for serious budget reform