Public Finance

Apple Saves Billions by Creatively Exploiting Loopholes of International Tax System

Think different, Apple tells the world. The Cupertino company, whose creations have defined our technological age, apparently applies the same innovative thinking to its tax evasion strategies. Stuffing revenue in some low-tax, high-privacy bank in the Caribbean? 'Bout as forward-thinking as a Bla ... More >>

Tax "Cheat" Or Hero? Medical Marijuana Tax Revolt Brewing.

Taxes are never far from Dave Hodges's mind. According to the state, Hodges, the founder and operator of the All American Cannabis Club in San Jose, owes almost a quarter million in back taxes. According to Hodges, the state owes him -- about $11,000, in taxes he "mistakenly" paid.Like every other m ... More >>

New Legislation to Force Residents Who Rent Out Parking Spots to Pay Taxes

We all know that San Francisco is an agonizing place to park, so it's understandable that some property owners would want to capitalize on their much-coveted parking spots by renting them out for some extra cash. But what these amateur entrepreneurs might not know is that they are and have been vi ... More >>

Prop. 29 Losing Voter Support, Though Cigarette Tax Remains Popular

What can you get for $42 million? A penthouse apartment at the top of the St. Regis. Six years of Adonal Foyle. Roy Lichtenstein's peephole painting. Also, a 14 percent drop in support for Proposition 29, which would raise the cigarette tax and fund cancer research. In March, a poll by the Publi ... More >>

Meet the California Lawmakers Who Are Enabling the Marijuana War

Losing efforts sometimes score wins. Medical marijuana scored such a moral victory late Wednesday, when 163 members of Congress voted in favor of not allowing federal dollars to be spent on busting pot growers, distributors, and dispensaries in states with medical cannabis laws.The brainchild o ... More >>

Occupy SF Movement Grows on Market Street

​Last week we told you about the Occupy Wall Street movement spreading all the way to the West Coast, including San Francisco. Near the Financial District, protesters have set up a makeshift home for themselves, equipped with tarps, food, rain gear, and, because it's San Francisco, they're attempt ... More >>

Clean Energy Stimulus Cash Is Slow to Be Spent

Congressman Pete Stark Aims to Save Medical Marijuana Dispensaries Big Bucks

You've got a friend in high places​As if raids from gun-toting Drug Enforcement Agency agents weren't enough to make stoners paranoid, California's medical marijuana clubs can also be shut down real fast by the IRS. That's because the Internal Revenue Service has declared that California's legal m ... More >>

Timothy Geithner, Treasury Secretary, Catches a Wave Near San Francisco -- on 4/20

Would love to surf the Mavericks, we assume​Keeping the nation from falling into another Depression is not easy feat, and so U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner deserves a little R&R. And while you might expect Geithner's version of taking it easy to be nothing more than reading the finan ... More >>

San Jose: How Deep Does the Inferiority Complex Go?

Do you know the way to San Jose?Greg Dewar/Flickr​In its never-ending quest to be San Francisco, it's so clear that San Jose will go to great lengths to take away anything or anyone that makes the City by the Bay, well, the City by the Bay. Funny as this faux rivalry might seem, there are two poli ... More >>

Gov. Jerry Brown Stops in SF to Get Buy-In on Budget

What kind of salesman is he?​Update: The Bay Area Council voted to endorse Brown's budget proposal. Members called the talk with Brown "tough but refreshing."As a governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger had the star power that could set off a media frenzy every time he blew his nose. And while Gov.Jerry B ... More >>

Newsom Behind Deal to Keep Twitter in San Francisco

Newsom is behind the curtain​Two weeks ago, SF Weekly reported that the Twitter tax break deal reeked of former Mayor Gavin Newsom -- and now we know why. City supervisors had proposed legislation with sweet tax breaks for microblogging giant Twitter that would entice the company to remain in San ... More >>

Wesley Snipes Tax Evasion Sentence Outrages Libertarian Party

Wesley Snipes: Tax protester and vampire hunter​The leader of the nation's Libertarian Party said today he's outraged that Wesley Snipes has been sentenced to three years in prison, citing it as an example of the IRS' unfair "selective enforcement," and of the fact evaders evade because "THE TAX I ... More >>

Tax Delinquent List Posted -- 'Target' Owes What?

​The state of California has, once again, updated its list of California's biggest sales tax delinquents -- and the No. 1 target is, well, Target. But not the Target you're thinking of. The big-box retailer with the checkered record regarding gay rights that has San Franciscans enraged has, ostens ... More >>

City Spends $726 Million Yearly to Help Disabled Live at Home

San Francisco has been truly generous in helping people live at home. It has not been so generous when it comes to keeping track of all the programs it funds. ​Spending and programs are not tracked, nor coordinated -- creating a system seemingly ripe for waste and ineffectiveness.When it comes t ... More >>

Muni Fail

Federal scrutiny could threaten funding for the Central Subway boondoggle.

S.F. Cig Fee a Money-Loser: Put *That* In Your Pipe and Smoke it

Not cost productive either...​Kudos to SF Appeal's Chris Roberts for scouring the city controller's six-month budget status report and finding an unfiltered nugget on page 22: Somehow, the city has managed to lose millions on its highly touted cigarette fee. We've written plenty about how this fee ... More >>

Board Members Predict Even Feds' Threats Can't Derail Oakland Airport Connector

​What will it take to derail BART's half-billion dillar planned extension to Oakland Airport? How about the price quadrupling while the anticipated ridership dropped by two-thirds? Nope. How about the predicted commute time actually being slower than the existing shuttle system? Nope. Well, how ab ... More >>

City Enters Era of 'Year-Round Budgeting'

​There used to be a time when the city hammered out a tentative budget, politicians and others duked it out regarding the allocations for their pet causes and agencies, and, eventually, everyone got on with running the city. Well, those days are over. Now the joys of budgeting never end -- and the ... More >>

The Guardian Way: Fudge the Numbers Till They Add Up How You Want

​When we got wind that the Guardian was planning a response to the "Worst-Run Big City in the U.S." article I wrote with Benjamin Wachs, we guessed they'd do two things: Focus almost entirely on one chart that went along with our lengthy article (nearly completely ignoring the article) and propose ... More >>

Further Proof That Incarceration Is No Fun: Inmates File Federal Suit Over Alleged Price Gouging In Prison Cantina

But no one loves pricey coffee​As hard-liners say, "you do the crime, you do the time." But if you feel you're getting ripped off by paying too much for prison coffee -- to quote Doug Llewelyn, "You take 'em to court." Eight inmates at Pelican Bay State Prison in Crescent City in the far north of ... More >>

Oops, They Did It Again -- Public Campaign Finance Advocates Bemoan Latest 'Raid'

​Public campaign financing isn't just a political football here in San Francisco -- it's a football so frequently kicked, punted, or otherwise buffeted the laces have come undone. And is there any money to fix it? Don't ask! The latest instance of San Francisco politicos stating they like the idea ... More >>

Show 'Em What They Lost: Controller Issues Report Detailing How Much State Will Vacuum Away From S.F.

​As promised, city controller Ben Rosenfeld this afternoon released a report detailing the hit San Francisco will take as a result of state borrowing, filching, and other creative accounting tactics. What, you were expecting good news? How about this: Hundreds of Muni vehicles didn't crash today. ... More >>

Sacramento's Dem, Republican Leaders Schedule Caucus Meetings to Sell Legislators on Budget Deal

Cutting billions from health and education while 'borrowing' from local governments -- the California dream!Some of the haziness surrounding the state's tentative budget deal will burn off this morning, as party leaders have scheduled 9 a.m. caucuses to outline the finer points of a plan that promis ... More >>

S.F. Treasurer Admits City Goofed on Payroll Taxes, Hit Up Companies That Don't Owe Any

Treasurer Jose Cisneros: Sorry, our badYesterday we reported that it appeared the city's tax collectors forgot about an overwhelmingly approved ballot proposition that raised the payroll a business must pay out in order to to owe San Francisco payroll taxes. City Treasurer Jose Cisneros today confir ... More >>

Chronic City: Oh, Noes! Fewer Narcs! Budget Crisis Could Mean Fewer Drug Busts.

Is it game over for the state's narcotics officers? California's budget crunch could cut almost a third of the agents from the Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement, according to Attorney General Jerry Brown.Budget negotiators, facing the financial meltdown of the state treasury, have proposed lopping $20 ... More >>

Transit Spotting

A transportation activist points to inefficient and costly projects like the Central Subway.

Mayor, Board President's Payroll Tax Plans are Different; Supes Notified Via Press Release

It turns out the mayor does have a device for communicating with David Chiu. It's called a press release.Yesterday we wrote about how Mayor Gavin Newsom announced at the San Francisco Business Times breakfast that he was proposing an overhaul of the city's payroll tax -- which came as news to Board ... More >>

Governor Newsom? Who Knew?

IRS Goes After Examiner Owner

DARPA Creates Cyborg Spy Moths, Girls' Locker Rooms Everywhere Compromised

EFF, ACLU Go to Bat for Wikileaks

Rent to Evict

For years, many low-income renters called the building their home. That's until a developer, who told the government it would be affordable, raised the rents.

Doublespeak With Forked Tongue

When dealing with Chris Daly and his political objectives, it's best to leave reality behind

Letters to the Editor

Week of Wednesday, October 19, 2005

The New California Adventure

Schwarzenegger budget policies are turning small cities and rural counties into post-apocalypse theme parks

Letters to the Editor

Week of Wednesday, February 11, 2004

Total Future Awareness

The Defense Department hires a New Economy futurist to help fight terror. Don't you feel safer already?

Blowing Smoke

WARNING: Gov. Davis' plan to use tobacco lawsuit money to fill a budget gap is dangerous to our financial health

The Ghost of Scandals Past

Previous "creative financing" debacles should haunt city officials who've approved a risky $1 billion lease of Muni streetcars

How to Kill a Nonprofit

A federal audit reveals the waste and mismanagement that ruined a once-promising minority aid program

Shaky Ground

Environmental activists adopt a new strategy -- playing the race card

Opening Pandora's Box

Once-secret documents reveal the tobacco industry's battle to gut anti-smoking education in California. Former Assembly Speaker Willie Brown and former Gov. Pete Wilson helped.

Crime and Patronage

For more than a decade, three different mayors have let one man dole out government jobs to alleged murderers, crack dealers, and other serious felons. The question, obviously, is why.

Healthy Investment

Ignore Davis, Fang, O'Donoghue, and Roselli; here's how renovating Laguna Honda could save taxpayers $500 million

By George!

A forgotten San Francisco economist survives, barely, in his adopted city

The Grid

The Burton Money Machine

John Burton's 1040s reveal that politics doesn't pay

Clockers

Residents of a downtown loft tell you where to get off

Dog Bites