The Facts

The DSA's housing tax attracted its first major opposition this week. Mayor Lurie has come out to oppose the November ballot measure which would redirect taxes on certain from the General Fund into restricted housing programs.

The Controller’s analysis says the measure would shift $120 million per year out of the General Fund, increasing the projected deficit.

Lurie instead backs Proposition C, which would grow the Housing Trust Fund toward $125 million using future property-tax growth.

The Context

The San Francisco Democratic Socialists of America gathered signatures for the measure, which is also backed by former Supervisor Dean Preston.

The GrowSF Take

We have not yet taken a position on any of the local ballot measures, but we did publish our analysis of the ballot language this week. The measure somewhat confusingly worded to sound like a tax reduction, but in short it would redirects about half of a real estate transfer tax away from the general fund and toward subsidized housing.

Proposition C is quite interesting because it indexes the housing subsidy on broader economic growth, effectively aligning incentives to grow the economy while providing a possible path to bonding recurring revenues to build infrastructure faster.