District 11 Supervisor Chyanne Chen is leading the call for the city to be granted the power to tax the super rich.
Chen, with cosponsors District 9 Supervisor Jackie Fielder and District 10 Supervisor Shamann, last month put forward a non-binding resolution urging state legislators — state Sen. Scott Weiner, Assemblymember Matt Haney and Assemblymember Catherine Stefani — to look into giving cities and counties to enact wealth and progressive income taxes.
“Given the budget landscape, Supervisor Chen introduced the resolution to advocate that the state give counties the ability to consider these types of taxes and decide for themselves if they are tools that could help stabilize funding for essential services including food security, street cleanliness and public safety,” said Jackie Prager, Chen’s legislative aide.
California doesn’t allow for this type of taxation. In 2023, Assemblymember Alex Lee introduced Assembly Bill 259, which proposed to apply a 1% annual tax rate on individuals with a net worth of more than $50 million and a 1.5% annual tax rate on those with a net worth of over $1 billion. The bill failed its first committee review in 2024.
In San Francisco, which just navigated a budget deficit of $876 million, voters in 2020 approved a tax on CEOs and tech companies to address income inequality and direct funds toward health services.
The Board of Supervisors unanimously passed Chen’s resolution on June 24 with no discussion at the end of the meeting as part of a consent agenda for items introduced without committee reference and was forwarded to the offfice of Mayor Daniel Lurie.
Anne Marie Kristoff (she/her) is a recent graduate from San Francisco State University's journalism program. She enjoys writing about the arts, entertainment and nature.
