There’s no question that, between the two major parties, Democrats definitely love to tax more than Republicans. But the latest Democrat money grab scheme – “tax the rich” – isn’t playing as well as many likely thought it would.
That was demonstrated on Tuesday in the bluest city in the country: San Francisco. There, voters rejected a union-backed tax hike called the “Overpaid CEO Tax,” and it wasn’t even close.
Somewhere, Gavin Newsom has to be gnashing his teeth in fury:
Measure D lost 53.64 to 46.36 percent, according to San Francisco Department of Elections results. The unions wanted to expand the city’s existing CEO pay ratio tax, which already hits large companies when a top executive earns more than 100 times the median worker. Under Measure D, the formula would have compared executive pay against a company’s entire national workforce, not just its San Francisco employees, while also raising the tax rates.
Supporters promised the measure would bring in $250 to $300 million a year for city services. The city’s own analysis found it would have killed roughly 940 jobs. Earlier this year, 60 percent of San Francisco voters told pollsters they supported the measure. Nancy Pelosi endorsed it. A supermajority of the Board of Supervisors backed it. Then they saw the 940 jobs number.
San Francisco has spent years watching employers leave for Austin, Miami, and elsewhere. Voters were not interested in speeding that up.
Mayor Daniel Lurie opposed the measure, arguing it would hurt the city’s recovery. Tech leaders and business groups lined up against it, including Google co-founder Sergey Brin and DoorDash co-founder Tony Xu, who each spent hundreds of thousands against it. Chris Larsen and Mike Moritz also helped fund the fight, along with companies including Williams-Sonoma, Visa, and Meta. All told, the opposition spent about $7 million.
Chris Larson, the co-founder of Ripple who is a major Democrat Party donor, also came out against the measure.
San Franciscans want real solutions to the affordability crisis facing our city, and they want those solutions built through partnership, not conflict.
Naturally, the commie left backing the tax demonstrated (again) that they just. don’t. get. it.
“A sad day for San Francisco when Mayor Lurie partnered with billionaires and corporations who received massive tax cuts from the Trump administration,” said Scott Mann, a spokesperson for the SEIU-backed pro-D campaign.
What the left-wing extremist faction of the Democrat Party refuses to accept is that a) corporations must make money in order to thrive and provide jobs; b) corporations are legally obliged to ensure maximum profits for investors; and c) companies that don’t make money shut down and those jobs go away.
Or the companies move to places where the regulatory and economic policies are friendlier. Duh. Take note, Gov. Gavin Newsom.
The thing is, maybe this Democrat schtick of constantly attacking the most successful people in our country is finally beginning to wear thin. San Francisco may not offer conservatives hope very often, but maybe the rejection of this tax on success is the beginning of a good trend.