Public Finance

Public School Layoff Notices Sharply Lower Than In Recent Years

Today, 70 teachers and 35 other public school employees will receive layoff notifications. If this year is anything like recent ones, though, almost all those employees will have their jobs back by the time school is back in session. The layoffs have become something of an annual rite of summer v ... More >>

Tax Day Is Here, Go Get All Your Free Crap While Hating on the 1 Percent

We can't really blame you for spending the weekend hiking or drinking in the sun instead of indoors crunching numbers for your taxes -- that's what accountants are for, right? But sadly, your fun in the sun has come to an end, and so has your time to procrastinate paying the government. Fortunatel ... More >>

Cup of Merde: News of the City Being “Fucking Played” Reaches France

California Has No Clue How Much Money It's Making From Marijuana Sales

Most government agencies in California prefer to pretend that the state's medical cannabis industry doesn't exist. The state Board of Equalization is an exception -- and with good reason. State sales taxes are due on every medical marijuana transaction, and the BOE has spent time over the past few ... More >>

MS-13 Becomes First American-Born Street Gang to Be Marked A "Transnational Criminal Organization" by the Feds

Last week, the U.S. Treasury Department officially labeled MS-13 a transnational criminal organization. No other American-born street gang has earned that distinction, which has previously been given to groups like the Yakuza in Japan and the Zetas in Mexico.The classification speaks to the gang's s ... More >>

California: Privately Rich in Big Cities, Publicly Broke

Welcome to the hub of American prosperity. Yesterday, the Census Bureau released the results from the 2011 American Community Survey, and in the competition for Wealthiest City in America, the Bay Area snagged gold and silver. San Jose took the top spot, with a median income of $76,593 and San Fra ... More >>

City's Incredible Shrinking Budget Deficit Also Shrinks Leverage with Labor

​The news that another $60 million has been whittled off the city's projected budget deficit could be considered cause for revelry. But don't break out the pointy hats just yet. For one thing, the city is still $170 million in the hole based on the current calculations -- much less than before but ... More >>

SF Weekly Letters

City Hall's $700,000 Ramp Will Actually Cost $1.1 Million

Thanksgiving in August: Cook-a-thon to Raise Funds for Food Bank

Karl Wilder​Thanksgiving in August When: August 27, 10 a.m.-10 p.m. Where: St. Luke's Church Cost: As much canned/preserved food as you can afford. It's Thanksgiving...in August! At least that's what chef Karl Wilder is planning. In a 12-hour cook-a-thon, Wilder hopes to raise money for the ... More >>

Forget Your Tax Blues at National Painkiller Day at Smuggler's Cove

Caroline on Crack/Flickr​National Painkiller Day Where: Smuggler's Cove, 650 Gough (at McAllister), 869-1900 When: Mon., Apr. 18, 5 p.m.-2 a.m. Cost: $9-$22 per Painkiller (2-8 oz. of rum) The rundown: Tax day can be painful -- at least for those with less inventive tax lawyers on the payroll ... More >>

Twitter Tax Break Sails Through, Corporate Blackmail Does Work

A done deal ​As Supervisor John Avalos so bluntly put it: "The big boys won out today."Needless to say, Avalos ain't happy that his fellow supervisors approved a controversial tax-break deal that would surely keep Twitter from bolting San Francisco.  SF Weekly previously reported on the deal, ... More >>

SF Weekly Letters

This Just In: The U.S. House of Representatives Hates NPR

National Public Radio is good. Very good. They entertain us with such shows as This American Life, inform us with Morning Edition, and drop some musical knowledge on All Songs Considered. But the United States House of Representatives doesn't feel the same way: today it voted to cut off government f ... More >>

Gavin Newsom -- You Can Still Watch Him on Demand

Technologically active again​When former Mayor Gavin Newsom left City Hall, his staid YouTube addresses that people had grown accustomed to went right with him. But Newsom's hiatus from YouTube was short-lived. Just barely a month as the state Lieutenant Governor, Newsom sent out his first video a ... More >>

Pension Tension: New Contribution Rate Will Be $433 Million a Year

​Remember all that hard stuff Mayor Ed Lee has to do? Deal with unraveling labor agreements, balance a creaking budget, and scrub hair gel stains off of low-hanging lighting fixtures and the tops of chairs? Well, he'll have to do it with upwards of $26 million less than he thought he would. On Tue ... More >>

Cost-Saving America's Cup Proposal Not Shipshape Yet

Don't fire up the boats yet...​The new-and-improved groundwork for hosting the America's Cup in San Francisco appears to take much less of a bite of city finances than the fabulously expensive, nonbinding "term sheet" the city approved in October. Fred Brousseau, a principal at the city's Budget A ... More >>

California Has a Budget -- Only 100 Days Late

The lady and the bear have been waiting a long time...​Following an all-night session of wheeling and dealing -- and a record 100-day impasse -- the state senate moments ago approved a budget for California. Details on the budget -- and the most recent impasse -- are forthcoming; it closes a $19 b ... More >>

Tom Ammiano Tries, Tries Again With Marijuana Bill

Will Tom Ammiano's latest marijuana legislation puff, puff, pass? ​Everybody knows California is broke, and those same everybodies know that thar's a gold mine waiting to be unearthed -- when and if the state starts taxing adult-use recreational marijuana (everybody *could* also be wrong, but ... More >>

Vegan activist protests sale of live chickens at UN Plaza farmers' market

S.F. Taxpayer-Funded Poll Reveals S.F. Taxpayers Don't Want to Pay Taxes

San Francisco voters say 'Bah Humbug' to new taxes, poll claims...​A poll commissioned by the San Francisco County Transportation Authority revealed that city voters are in no mood to pay the taxes the Board of Supervisors will likely today move to place on the ballot -- where voters will eventual ... More >>

City Has $2.6 Million Stimulus Surplus Burning Hole in its Pocket

Program's implosion leaves San Francisco with millions to spend and nothing to buy.That was fast...​As City Hall struggles to close a $483 million budget gap, bureaucrats a block away at the San Francisco Department of the Environment are faced with the opposite quandary: They must figure out how ... More >>

Your E-Filed Taxes Saved IRS $195M (and Counting). But Post Office Not Thrilled.

​Yesterday we reported that nearly eight of every 10 tax forms received by the IRS by early April was sent electronically. This put members of the United States Postal Service in the position of another blue-uniformed figure with little to do: The Maytag repairman. With the late-evening Tax Night ... More >>

I'll Surrender My Snark If the Guardian Loses its Condescension: One More Look at the Numbers

​Tim Redmond thinks our debate on Forum tomorrow should be "fun." But I'm bored with his line of argument already. Because the truth is that we're reached a point in the "how much does San Francisco spend per capita?" debate where reasonable people can disagree. And at that point, debating th ... More >>

BART may lose $780k if contractor can't get venture together

Update: How Much Does Prison Coffee Have To Cost Before Inmate Files Federal Suit? Less Than You'd Think.

The crux of a Constitutional lawsuit...​Last week we reported on a lawsuit filed in San Francisco federal court by an octet of inmates charging they were being price-gouged at Pelican Bay prison in the far north of California. We noted that the e-filing of the case, sadly, didn't include the actua ... More >>

New York Times Debuts Bay Area Section Today. Our Verdict: Meh.

Not a disaster, no -- but not 'King of the World' either...​The nation's paper of record launched its new Bay Area section today to compete with San Francisco's paper of record. So how does the Times' San Francentric coverage measure up? Well, let's just say the Times is no Chronicle. And, bel ... More >>

Obama's stimulus money will increase traffic, but not bridge safety

Chronic City: Marijuana, Money, and the Media

Compassion Family MinistriesYes, Grasshopper... Money grows on killa trees.Things are smoking on the marijuana front, and I'm not just talking about the ringing cash registers at newly emboldened dispensaries statewide. Time after time this week, the media brought together money and marijuana in pub ... More >>

S.F. Assessor Phil Ting Takes on the Catholic Church Tomorrow Morning

Nobody expects Phil Ting!Tomorrow morning, assessor Phil Ting will be arguing in front of the San Francisco Appeals Board that the Catholic Church owes San Francisco up to $15 million in transfer taxes -- one of the largest tax bills in the city's history. The hearing will be held at 1 South Van Nes ... More >>

Bonfire of the Profanities

An investigator who exposed dishonest savings and loan regulators in the '80s re-encounters an old rival in the latest banking crisis.

Election Night Storylines

Mad As A Wet Haine

Double Bogey

Muni's bogus tax shelter and theGuardian's bogus lawsuit.

SF Weekly Letters

Shaky bond insurers cost taxpayers money

SF Gov InAction: Same Old Shit Gets Bigger Tax Breaks; Jake McGoldrick's Charter Amendment Retirement Tour Heats Up, and Did Somebody Say "Peaker Plants?"

Make A Few Deductions and Some Tricks For Tax Day

On-Time MUNI Called 'Unrealistic' By Newsom

Chicken John Campaign Funds Denied ... Again

Letters to the Editor

Week of Wednesday, August 3, 2005

The Daily Lickspittle

Journalism has a lot of problems, but too many of them are manifestations of a sycophantic attitude toward the big-e Establishment

Building Up California

A high-rise condo boom in San Diego may show the way out of a statewide housing and sprawl problem

A Moving Experience

Delays and mismanagement endangered a $20 million federal reconstruction grant for North Beach Place. So the Housing Authority tried to speed the project up -- by tricking longtime, elderly residents into leaving.

Dirty Money

President Bush says he's serious about cracking down on money laundering by terrorists. San Francisco's experience suggests otherwise.

Paying the Price: Why Are S.F. Gas Prices So High?

Bay Area motorists pay the highest gas prices in the state

Falling Through The Gap

Welcome to S.F. Give Us Your Money

Death, Taxes, and User Fees

The rise of hidden taxes in the Jordan era

Dollars Without Sense

For 25 years, Harvey Ross has rooted out the waste and lies of politicians and bureaucrats. But some say he's too lost in the line items to see the big picture