No on Proposition I
Changes to Real Property Transfer Tax
What is it?
San Francisco charges a transfer tax every time property changes hands. The rate rises with the price: sales of $10M or more pay 5.5%, and sales of $25M or more pay 6%, the second-highest rate in the state after Los Angeles. Prop I keeps that rate and changes where the money goes: roughly half of what those biggest sales pay would no longer flow into the City's "general fund," where it can be allocated through the normal budgeting process, and would instead be restricted to subsidized housing and homelessness prevention.
It would also prevent the Board of Supervisors from lowering the tax without a vote of the people.
New buildings with 4 or more homes, sold within 5 years of initial construction, are exempt from half of the tax on that first sale. It is a modest tax cut for developers.
How the restricted money would be spent
- At least 60% would go to building new subsidized housing, with half of that reserved for "social housing" projects where residents share in management and, where feasible, ownership through structures like community land trusts and limited-equity co-ops, which cap resale values
- At least 25% would go to preservation, with most of that buying rent-controlled buildings and SROs and the rest rehabilitating existing subsidized housing
- At least 10% would go to eviction legal defense and emergency rental assistance
- Up to 5% can be used for administration, with refunds paid separately and not subject to that cap
Read the full annotated legal text →
Click to show fiscal impacts and more details
Why vote No?
Prop I would remove $120M per year from the City's General Fund (the account that pays for most city services), and dedicate it to a small list of preferred housing programs. The City already projects a $741.7M deficit, so every rerouted dollar is a cut to parks, street cleaning, or public safety. It would be the City's 24th voter-mandated spending requirement.
Prop I also makes San Francisco's transfer tax (the second highest in the state!) permanent. It strips the Board's power to ever lower it, too. When Los Angeles taxed big property sales this way, sales fell 38%, and the lost property taxes offset much of what it raised. Former Supervisor Dean Preston wrote the 2020 tax, and this measure (also from him!) would make it untouchable.
We support real money for subsidized housing. That's why we endorsed Prop C, which grows the Housing Trust Fund to $125M per year and lets the Board pause contributions in bad budget years.
Vote no on Prop I.