Investing in Our City

Last month, Marc Benioff, the billionaire owner of Salesforce, decided to put his own wealth above the residents of San Francisco and declare that the Trump administration should send the National Guard to San Francisco, creating chaos and jeopardizing our immigrant community. He has since walked back his comments, but at what cost to our City?

Billionaires make millions on the backs of workers, including immigrants, without paying their fair share. Instead of waiting for billionaires to do the right thing, we must ensure they and their corporations that profit off San Francisco and the backs of working families pay their fair share. We also recently learned that Benioff is trying to increase his profits by applying for contracts with the federal government to assist in ICE raids in our community.

In response, I, along with three of my colleagues, have submitted a ballot initiative to restore the overpaid CEO tax to its original level, as well as taxing Transportation Network Companies (TNCs) like Uber, Lyft and Waymo, to ensure they help pay for maintaining the city streets and infrastructure that they use to make their profits. This measure is projected to bring in between $150 million to $200 million to our City’s general fund, which we will be able to use for vital city services.

Funding for Immigration Legal Services and Support

After much fear and uncertainty, the Trump administration has said they will not be sending federal troops to San Francisco, but we know better than to trust him. Since January, federal agents have been detaining immigrants during routine court visits, as they go to work and even places of education and worship are no longer safe. As we always have, San Francisco has responded with an amazing coalition of lawyers, advocates and community members who are working around the clock to offer assistance and legal services, including a 24-hour rapid response hotline to support our immigrant community.

But the need has only grown with each new federal announcement. If we really want to protect our communities, we must invest in our communities. At the end of October, I introduced a supplemental budget appropriation from the reserves we set aside earlier this year when we approved our budget. These additional funds will add $3.5 million to expand existing community response services for a total of more than $14 million to support the lawyers and advocates who are on the front lines, fighting to protect our immigrant community.

Keeping Our Seniors and Families Fed

I also joined Mayor Daniel Lurie to introduce an additional budget supplemental to invest in food security for San Franciscans. We were recently notified that the ongoing federal government shutdown will cut off CalFresh benefits and food security programs starting Nov. 1. This will affect critical food access for almost 112,000 San Franciscans – nearly 60% of them children and seniors. In the Richmond alone it impacts more than 5,000 people.

We cannot let the GOP’s shutdown leave these vulnerable individuals without access to food. To that end, we have allocated $9 million to backfill the CalFresh cuts. The City’s funds will be matched through a public-private partnership and we will continue to monitor the situation until funding is restored.

I know this moment feels very bleak and we have a lot at stake, but we are fighting back. Know that I am committed to you and I will continue fighting for a better Richmond and a better San Francisco.

Connie Chan represents District 1 on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. She can be reached at 415-554-7410 or chanstaff@sfgov.org.