Taxes to Fund Homelessness Services Paper Example

Taxes to fund the homelessness services is a proposal by the city of San Francisco renowned as Proposition C aimed at imposing additional taxes on businesses to solve the problem of homelessness in the city (Spur). According to the proposition, the additional business tax revenue will be dedicated to "Our City Our Home Fund" towards services like subsidies, shelters, rent, mental health and permanent housing (Thadani). According to Ben Rosenfield, City Controller, the tax would raise an estimated $250 to $300 million a year doubling the current homeless and housing budget (sfelections.org).

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Proposition C is a citizen petition initiated or supported by a group of homeless rights advocates, former unhoused people and small businesses (Gensler). Furthermore, the additional tax revenue is widely supported by Democrats in San Francisco. Similarly, industry players such as Marc Benioff the co-founder and CEO of Salesforce supported the tax measure arguing that homelessness is the responsibility for all. Benioff committed to spending $500000 and an additional $1 million in supporting and advertising proposition C respectively (Gensler). The proponents argue that businesses should pay a small price to pay after the Trump administration imposed tax cuts on corporations. On the contrary, the Bay Area Council and the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce oppose the new tax proposal (Sawyer). According to their argument, the tax raised from large business account to 40% tax revenue in the city which is enough (Nabulsi). Moreover, the newly elected mayor London Breed is against Proposition C arguing that solving homelessness is her top priority and that the tax measure would increase homelessness in SF since the other homeless would be attracted to services increment. Likewise, Republicans in San Francisco endorsed a "No" vote come to the November election. In addition, Jack Dorsey the CEO of Square and Twitter opposed the proposition by arguing that it is not the best way to solve homelessness in San Francisco and California in general (Nabulsi).

Works Cited

Gensler, Lauren. "Tech Billionaires Benioff, Dorsey Square Off Over How To Deal With Homelessness." Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 12 Oct. 2018, www.forbes.com/sites/laurengensler/2018/10/12/marc-benioff-jack-dorsey-proposition-c-homelessness-san-francisco/#1149df0e3877.

Nabulsi, Mira. "San Francisco Proposition C: Business Tax to Fund Homeless Services." KALW, www.kalw.org/post/san-francisco-proposition-c-business-tax-fund-homeless-services#stream/0.

San FranciscoVoter Information Pamphlet & Sample Ballot. Additional Business Taxes to Fund Homeless Services | San Francisco Voter Guide, voterguide.sfelections.org/en/additional-business-taxes-fund-homeless-services.

Sawyer, Nuala. "Our City, Our Home Heads to November Ballot - July 11, 2018." SF Weekly, 11 July 2018, www.sfweekly.com/news/our-city-our-home-heads-to-november-ballot/.

Spur. "SF Prop C - Business Tax for Homeless Services." 2 Oct. 2018, www.spur.org/voter-guide/san-francisco-2018-11/prop-c-business-tax-homeless-services.

Thadani, Trisha. "SF Business Tax Ballot Measure Could Result in Middle Class Job Flight." SFChronicle.com, San Francisco Chronicle, 7 Aug. 2018, www.sfchronicle.com/politics/article/Proposed-SF-tax-on-businesses-to-fund-homeless-13136403.php.