Public Finance

San Franciscans Are Constantly Cheating on Taxes. You Know Who You Are

We all know (and enjoy) that sweet taste of taking something for nothing, but it always feels a little wrong. Now that Tax Day is over, let the shaming begin. According to the 2012 National Taxpayer Advocate, California has the highest number of tax cheats in the nation, with San Francisco ... More >>

San Francisco Millionaires Join Scores of Rich People to Demand Higher Taxes on Wealthy

There's a bunch of bargaining chips currently being passed back and forth between President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner as they seek to reach a budget deal before the county slides down the much-feared Fiscal Cliff. Perhaps the most notable involved tax rates for the wealthy: generally sp ... More >>

Our Most Corrupt Tax Breaks: 10 Loopholes to Close Right Now

Sales Tax: San Francisco Left in the Dust

San Francisco is an expensive place to be if you're paying a parking ticket or writing out a rent check or purchasing real estate. We've got that covered. But, when it comes to obtaining a bottle of juice or bar of soap, we're very reasonable. While San Francisco voters spurned a half-a-percent sale ... More >>

Blame Uncertainty for Rising Unemployment, Study Says

"Uncertainty!" Scottinsh dramatist David Mallet wrote "Fell demon of our fears! The human soul that can support despair, supports not thee." The human soul and the economy have that in common. By now, it's been ingrained in our consciousness by news stories and stump speeches: Uncertainty is holdin ... More >>

Eyes on Ting: Possible Sweetheart Deal Spurs Investigation

Good Stranger: DoD Records Citizens' Encounters with SFPD

"It Came From Above": Assessor Defends Bill Cancellation

Weeklong Tax Day Happy Hour at Credo's Pizzeria: 99-Cent Pizza for the 99 Percent

What: Tax Day Happy Hour Where: Credo Restaurant, 360 Pine (at Montgomery) When: Monday, April 16 through Friday, April 20, 2:30 to 6 p.m. Cost: Pizzas cost $.99 with purchase of a glass of wine or cocktail The Rundown: Tax season is finally at an end on Monday (unless you've filed for an extens ... More >>

Tea Party Warrior: Report Medical Marijuana Clubs to the IRS and Get Rich

​For Paul Chabot, the War on Drugs is personal indeed: Before he became a Navy man, a campus cop, and a former National Drug Control Policy staffer, he was in drug rehab for alcohol and marijuana addiction himself -- at the young age of 12, according to his online bio.In his latest tactical maneuv ... More >>

Could a Soda Tax Save Lives?

​In April last year, the California state Assembly Committee on Revenue and Taxation shot down AB 669, Assemblymember Bill Monning's attempt to pass a penny-per-ounce tax on all sweetened beverages, such as sodas, energy drinks, and sweetened fruit-juice drinks. Monning's office estimated that the ... More >>

Prop 13: The Building-Sized Loopholes Corporations Exploit

AB 152 Proposes Tax Credits for Farmers Donating to Food Banks

Assemblymember Felipe Fuentes.​Just as the California state legislature fights for its paychecks, another food-related bill fights to make it through committee in the Senate after passing unanimously through the Assembly.AB 152, introduced by Assemblymember Felipe Fuentes, is intended to give reli ... More >>

San Francisco's $2.8 million Corporate Welfare Tab

Matt Smith illustrationUp with corporate welfare!​Gov. Jerry Brown has moved to cut public money thrown at enterprise tax zones, which provide breaks to companies in certain disadvantaged areas, including San Francisco's financial district and SOMA.But San Francisco companies are veritable corpora ... More >>

Twitter Confirms It Will Stay in San Francisco

Done deal ​Much to nobody's surprise, Twitter officials signed a lease to keep the multibillion-dollar company in San Francisco -- tax break and all. And although progressives balked at the idea of cutting the microblogging giant a six-year tax break to keep its headquarters in San Francisco, they ... More >>

Never Mind the City's Budget Crisis: Supervisors, Mayor to Get Pay Raise

Pay raises won't help close the budget gap​Closing a multimillion-dollar budget deficit is no easy task -- and handing out raises to elected officials will only make it that much harder. The Examiner reports today that in the face of a $300 million budget crisis, the Civil Service Commission has r ... More >>

Twitter Promises to Stay in San Francisco -- if City Gives Tax Break

Just a wink and a nod​It appears a sop to corporate blackmail does work. The Examiner is reporting that Twitter fired off a letter to city supervisors earlier today, saying it will stay in San Francisco if the city signs off on a deal giving the microblogging giant a mega tax break. "Twitter is co ... More >>

Pelosi's Waning Power Felt with Republican $15 Million Cut for The Presidio

Thanks, Republicans.​House Republicans delivered a gut-punch to their nemesis Nancy Pelosi Thursday with a proposed $15 million cut in funding for the Presidio, a national park that's long been Pelosi's pet project.In order to wean itself off federal funding, the former U.S. Army base has become a ... More >>

Obama Budget Proposes $200 Million for S.F. Central Subway

Nat "Pro Shop" Ford​Muni boss Nat Ford on Monday praised Barack Obama for including $200 million in spending for the controversial Central Subway rail project as part of the president's federal budget proposal."The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency applauds President Barack Obama's pro ... More >>

A Moderate Move: S.F. Supervisors Try to Lure Twitter with Tax Breaks

Moderately progressive​Yesterday was the first real showing of how the political pendulum on the Board of Supervisors has swung the other way -- toward the moderates. Supervisor Jane Kim rolled out business-friendly legislation, which sparked criticism from progressives; even former Supervisor Chr ... More >>

RAND Corp.: California Pot Initiative a Stoner's Dream

Intently studying the RAND report...​The RAND Corporation, the partially government-funded think tank known for stoner-friendly reading material such as "A Million Random Digits with 100,000 Normal Deviates," today released a report suggesting California's marijuana legalization initiative will be ... More >>

Guardian Editor: How Dare You Call Me Anti-Tax?

The San Francisco Bay Guardian's Tim Redmond today called us with some spirited criticism of an item we ran last week stating the paper's editors would personally benefit from Prop. 13 legislation they endorsed.In the item, we noted that the paper had endorsed Assemblyman Tom Ammiano's AB 2492, whic ... More >>

Guardian Editors Would Benefit from Prop. 13 Legislation They Endorsed

It's always nice to get in the game early and pull up the ladder after you...​On Nov. 3, 2003 the Wall Street Journal published a letter from Warren Buffett in which the Nebraska billionaire explained his negative view of California's Proposition 13, the 1978 law that limits property tax assessmen ... More >>

Warning, Procrastinator: Almost No Post Offices Open Until Midnight on Tax Day

He can't save you now, tax procrastinator...​IRS statistics reveal 80 percent of returns have been e-filed this year. In the good old days, folks who'd left their taxes until on or about April 15 could count on hordes of postal workers swarming the streets to grab the tax forms out of their hands ... More >>

New City Program Helps Homeowners Slash PG&E Bill

Look! Green! Green!​But Some Consumers May Be Better Off Looking Elsewhere To Fund Green Home Improvements, Program's Architect AcknowledgesMayor Gavin Newsom this evening will hold an "Internet town hall" to tout a new program helping property owners pay for energy-saving improvements. Dubbed Gre ... More >>

Feds Imperil Central Subway Funding, Demand Proof it's No Boondoggle

Jim HerdWoosh -- gone?​Mayor Gavin Newsom and his public transit chief Nat Ford had the chance to hold an elaborate groundbreaking earlier this month for the $1.6 billion Central Subway light rail project. But a letter from a  top federal transportation bureaucrat suggests the festivities may ... More >>

City Economist: Mayor's Payroll Tax Plan Would Create Thousands of Jobs -- Cost City $72M

But it's going to take money -- a whole lot of money -- to do it right, child​A report moments ago sent out by the city's chief economist, Ted Egan, claims that Mayor Gavin Newsom's proposed payroll tax revision will spur the creation of perhaps 4,300 jobs over the next two years -- but at a cost ... More >>

Stimulus Wreckage

Despite having been accused of deceptive business practices by the attorney general, former students, and ex-employees, Corinthian Colleges are getting millions in federal stimulus dollars.

Did City's Goof Cause Tax Collectors to Overcharge San Francisco's Small Businesses?

A ballot proposition that raised the amount of money San Francisco businesses need to pay their employees before being subjected to city payroll taxes seems to have gone unnoticed by the very people charged with enforcing it -- San Francisco's tax collectors. Last year, voters overwhelmingly approve ... More >>

S.F. Cracks List of Nation's Three Fastest-Plummeting Housing Markets (We Took Bronze)

New statistics show you absolutely can't afford these houses, but they now likely cost 28 percent less than last year's ridiculous pricesWhat do Phoenix, Las Vegas and San Francisco have in common? Yep: sketchy nightclubs and plummeting housing prices. According to S&P data released today, San ... More >>

Care Not Cash Volunteer Recommends Work, Ass-Kicking to Homeless in SF Weekly Letters

Chicken John Pissed At Ethics Commission

New School Tax To Hit Ballot by June 2008

Porkmistress Pelosi

Madam Speaker says she wants to tame pork-barrel spenders. Takes one to know one.

Noir You See It, Noir You Don't

Naming one of the masterminds of the SFO Enterprises scandal as a "watchdog" over billions in public investment: city government or pulp fiction?

The Tax Man Cometh

The federal government looks to eliminate abusive tax shelters, and it may cost San Francisco tens of millions of dollars

Gimme Shelters

After mortgaging our future in an orgy of budget-related borrowing, the Legislature hatches new orgiastic plans: sleazy tax shelters

Vicious Cycle

Federal investigators clear AIDS prevention programs of wrongdoing -- and then reinvestigate them

Common Cents

The Chronicle should stop the dubious "news stories" and openly rail against a sales tax hike that hurts its major advertisers -- and slaughters the poor

A Taxing Problem

Why are two candidates for assessor trying to take credit for a computer system that has been an abysmal failure?

Mecklin

On the Money

Indecent Disclosure

Willie Brown plays hide-and-seek with his tax returns

Downtown's Fairy Godmother

Doris Ward, San Francisco's assessor, is tossing around commercial tax breaks as if they were fairy dust. It's costing the city at least $100 million a year.

The Grid

The Redevelopment Sinkhole

Years of reckless borrowing have sent the city's Redevelopment Agency spiraling into debt. Mayor Brown's pet projects may flush it down the drain entirely.

The Great Bank Thievery

The city and state say the Bank of America stole hundreds of millions -- even billions -- of dollars from the government. But didn't San Francisco finance officials know what was going on? And shouldn't B of A executives be under criminal investigation?

State Ballot Measures

Candidate Promises Citizen Mayor Delivers?

Paper Trails

The Last Tycoon

Walter Shorenstein's skyscrapers shaped San Francisco. His cash configured City Hall. Publicly, he's pristine. But there's more than meets the eye to the man behind the megaliths.