Taxes and Transportation

President Franklin D. Roosevelt, while still New York state’s governor in 1932, warned: “Any government, like any family, can for a year spend a little more than it earns. But you and I know that a continuation of that habit means the poorhouse.”

California’s deficit must be cured by June 15, under California’s Constitution (Article IV, Sec. 12 [c]. By the commencement of the government’s fiscal year, and by the time you read this, Gov. Gavin Newsom will have disclosed his so-called “May update,” hoping it will include more state income than predicted in January. (That depends primarily on state income taxes filed on April 15 with the pesky Franchise Tax Board.) San Francisco also confronts a deficit which Mayor London Breed and 11 supervisors must solve by July 15, under Sec. 9.101 of our Charter.

I daresay City Hall’s dilemma appears more challenging with housing and commercial vacancies (like Park Merced’s 35% vacancy rate as of last month) and businesses still closing downtown on Market Street and in most neighborhoods. It’s a dogged effort by Mayor Breed in an election year with the Board of Supervisors’ Aaron Peskin joining Daniel Lurie, Mark Farrell and Supervisor Ahsha Safai vying as candidates for glory and stardom in Room 200 of City Hall. Both state and local legislators will be hard-pressed to impose more taxes on residents and businesses protected by Proposition B and its subsequent state constitutional voter safeguards.

One aspect of SF’s and even California’s financial digestive agitation remains untreated. An Epoch Times headline last month reminded readers that the number of immigrants, legal and illegal, with jobs in our country increased by about 3.4 million between March 2020 and March 2024, while the number of U.S.-born job holders decreased by approximately 78,000 during the same years. Since President Joe Biden’s inauguration, liberal-leaning Brookings Institute concluded after its investigation that about double the number of illegal aliens have entered the U.S. as legal immigrants. One economist characterized this as the distortion of the employment market by illegal aliens. Our own national Bureau of Labor Statistics noted that jobs for employees born in the U.S. declined by some 651,000 as of March 2024 compared to March 2023, while alien employees increased by almost 1.3 million.

Meanwhile, the politically divided U.S. Congress abrogates cessation of illegal immigrants under a White House which pitifully sends Kamala Harris to halt the disregard of our southern border. And local governments (like ours) practice a policy of embracing lawbreakers as “sanctuary” entities. Americans watched the April spectacle of Republicans refusing to support military aid to democracies Israel and Ukraine until our legal immigration laws are enforced. And President Biden and U.S. Sen. Chuckie Schumer admonish Israel and enable illegal immigration lest future registered Democrats be treated as the lawbreakers they are.

A major waste of taxpayer money, elected local government officials and public employees’ time emanated last month from a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District at 455 Golden Gate Ave. The City and County of San Francisco, with City Attorney David Chiu at the helm, sued the Oakland Port Commission on April 18 for breaching San Francisco International Airport’s trademark by renaming Oakland International Airport “San Francisco Bay Oakland International Airport.” This cat fight typifies a lawyer looking for work. Oakland believes it will attract more passengers with such geographical identification. City Hall asserts it will cause travelers “confusion” and harm SFO income and “reputation.” I say “balderdash!” We don’t possess a trademark on or own San Francisco Bay. Numerous cities are located on San Francisco Bay. Other San Franciscans and I used Oakland’s airport in the 1960s and 1970s when Southwest Airlines made it home base for flights to and from Los Angeles until establishing a presence at SFO. Passenger “confusion” constitutes a contrived rationale to thwart geographical fact. Oakland is in worse condition downtown than SF. I haven’t been there since BART celebrated its 50th year of operation in 2022, but Chiu’s foolish lawsuit means he needs publicity for re-election. Stop wasting time and taxpayer money!

The sorrowful and disastrous March automobile accident on West Portal caused by a single driver and resulting in four deaths has generated a Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) (which used to be called “The Muni”) plan, requested by Supervisor Myrna Melgar. Muni’s own data demonstrates that the intersection of Ulloa Street and West Portal Avenue has no “high injury incident” history. Yet, SFMTA recommends prohibiting cars at the West Portal and Ulloa intersection. The West Portal Merchants Association, led by Deirdre Von Rock, its president, calls it “outrageous,” pointing out SFMTA’s lack of any conclusion regarding the cause of the accident and SFMTA’s public statement said that the intersection was safe and didn’t contribute to the accident. The merchants association and nearby residents have assertedly given Muni better and less costly steps to prevent accidents, but Muni has failed to evaluate them. No, we don’t want another Central Subway project.

Speaking of transportation, last fall, BART not so loudly announced that its delayed extension to San Jose is delayed again, and the cost has risen to $12.2 billion, which is more than twice the original cost. The short six-mile extension goes downtown, then north to Santa Clara and includes four new stations. The completion date is 2036! (In 2014, completion was promised by 2026, with a total cost of $4.7 billion, later changed to a total cost of $6.9 billion). Don’t worry, you lucky Santa Clara County taxpayers, no further sales taxation will occur, claims the Valley Transportation Authority’s CEO. Oh, yeah. Wanna bet? VTA is notable for fudging costs and fooling taxpayers, going back to its own San Jose trolley system, which has wasted money since its 1990s creation.

Project bureaucrats ignore Santa Clara County’s population decrease since 2020, which isn’t predicted to increase by 10% until 2060. The Bay Area News Group has rightfully recommended that independent experts should review the project’s present expansion and politicians should decide whether a more cost-effective project is in the public’s interest, as Google and Silicon Valley mull high office vacancies and different commute patterns for employees working at home.

Someone informed me last month: “You know you’re really an old-timer when your main mode of transportation is a walker.” Personally, I value U.S. President John F. Kennedy’s conclusion at an April 29, 1962, dinner honoring Western Hemisphere Nobel prize winners: “I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered together at the White House, with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone.”

Quentin Kopp is a former San Francisco supervisor, state senator, SF Ethics Commission member, president of the California High Speed Rail Authority governing board and retired Superior Court judge.