San Francisco voters approve taxes on highly paid CEOs, big businesses

Whatever the net positive here is wholly negated by the number of stable long term jobs that are going to go away and be replaced by whoever the body shop chooses to send that day. Working for these middle men really sucks compared to working for whoever the service is being provided for (and I say that from experience).

> Under a newly approved law, any company whose top executive earns 100 times more than its average worker will pay an extra 0.1% surcharge on its annual business-tax payment. If a CEO makes 200 times more than the average employee, the surcharge increases to 0.2%, and so on per multiple of 100.

What do they mean by "earns," are bonuses included? Nonmonetary compensation like having your car or mortgage paid for directly? Increase in stock value that's part of your comp package?

I'm sure folks will try to game this to get around it, I'm just curious how.

Also it sounds like this is a surcharge on taxes paid, not actually a new tax on revenue. So if you pay $1 million to the city of San Francisco in taxes, and your CEO earns exactly 100x more than the average worker, you now have to pay... $1,001,000?

> The tax will levy an extra 0.1% to 0.6% on gross receipts made in San Francisco for companies whose highest paid executive makes 100 times or more its median worker’s salary. The amount levied will increase in 0.1% brackets proportionally to the pay ratio. A company whose highest paid employee earns 200 times more than its median San Francisco worker will get a extra 0.2% charge on its gross receipts. For companies whose CEO makes 300 more, the charge jumps to 0.3% and son on. The tax caps at 0.6%, and only companies with gross receipts over $1.17 million will be targeted.

> Under the measure, gross receipts and CEO compensation will include money made from stock options, bonuses, tax refunds, and property, a caveat seen by many as a way to target the tech sector where CEOs are often compensated in non-salaried bonuses. Tech is expected to account for 17% of the tax revenues, according to an estimate by the city’s chief economist, while retail and financial firms are expected to account for 23% of the revenues each.

> The CEO tax is expected to generate between $60 million to $140 million per year.

Doesn't seem that big in comparison to what SF annual budget is.

From (because the article doesn't give exact figures on transfer taxes): https://sfcontroller.org/sites/default/files/Documents/Econo... ?

> Proposed legislation would raise the Transfer Tax rate on properties in the city that sell for more than $10 million. For properties selling for between $10 million and $25 million, the rate would rise from 2.75% to 5.5%. For properties selling for over $25 million, the rate would rise from 3% to 6%.

Outsource the lowest paid workers to a subcontractor to raise your average employee wage. I’m not sure that has a desirable effect, but it seems this law certainly financially encourages that.

There are no singled-out pockets that you can tap into and make up SF annual budget. It's all about cumulating a lot fo long-tail small pockets + 1-2 large pockets.