City Contacting/ Business Tax

I received a copy of a letter from the Coalition For Economic Equity to the Mayor regarding contracting with SF. The letter calls for the transfer of oversight from the Human Rights Commission to the CAO, a 20% goal for SF with Locally owned businesses and oversight of Departments to meet goals. This is something many of us have been working on for years.


Hopefully the Mayor and the Board of Supervisors will move forward with these changes. If you are interested in this issue please let me know.

Please see attached letter to the Board of Supervisors copied to the Mayor regarding the Business tax. Thank you to all who added your name and business to the letter. As you can see we have four associations and 48 businesses sign on the letter. I will also be sending this to the Small Business Commission and Commissioners.


I will be following this issue closely


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July 2, 2012




Board of Supervisors

City Hall

1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place

San Francisco, CA 94102-4689



Dear Board of Supervisors:



As a diverse coalition of San Francisco small businesses and organizations, we write to express our strong support for reforming San Francisco’s business tax system towards one based on taxing revenues, not jobs.



San Francisco is currently the only city in California to levy a “payroll expense tax” on businesses, directly raising the cost of labor and creating a disincentive for companies to add jobs in our City. Moving towards a “gross receipts tax” – which taxes a business based on overall revenues and is used by a majority of other large cities in California – will end San Francisco’s direct tax on jobs, provide more stable and growing revenue for City services and incentivize job creation in diverse industries and businesses large and small.



Earlier this month, Mayor Ed Lee and Board of Supervisors President David Chiu introduced a comprehensive business tax reform measure for the November 2012 ballot that phases in a gross receipts tax over a five-year period beginning in 2014. This measure is the product of extensive outreach to diverse business sectors and business owners over the last six months conducted by the Mayor’s office, the Board President’s office and the Office of the Controller. We greatly appreciate this transparent and inclusive effort to engage the business community and understand our concerns and the potential impacts of business tax reform on our industries and on the City’s overall economy.



As a result of this extensive stakeholder outreach and approach, we strongly believe that the measure proposed by Mayor Lee and Board President David Chiu is the appropriate starting point for the legislative discussion and debate that will occur at the Board of Supervisors in July.



Significantly, the Mayor and Board President’s proposed measure includes a small business exemption for gross receipts of less than $1 million. This will provide our local micro and small businesses a needed boost. It also preserves existing payroll tax exclusions until their expiration for Central Market, biotech and clean-tech industries and local enterprise zone areas. It is important that the City continue to honor commitments it has made to businesses that made long-term investment and other decisions based on these exemptions. We all believe that tax reform must be broad based, equitable and fair and not create undo winners and losers. In addition to protecting the smallest businesses, we must protect our largest employers who have been paying a significant share of taxes for many years.



There is still plenty of work to be done to further refine and finalize the legislation before it is heard at the Board of Supervisors next month and considered for placement on the November 2012 ballot. As business tax reform moves to consideration at the Board of Supervisors in July, we hope that the business community and diverse business owners will continue to be consulted and considered throughout the legislative process. A topic this complex and this important impacts every San Francisco business and resident in some manner, and will require building the widest consensus possible to succeed in November.

With more than 30,000 San Franciscans still out of work, 2012 is the year to reform our business tax system. We strongly urge the Mayor and the members of the Board of Supervisors to work together to place ONE consensus business tax reform measure on the ballot this November that will end San Francisco’s direct tax on jobs for most businesses and build a strong and stable economic foundation for our City’s future. Please see the list of signatures below who are in support of this letter.



Associations:

• Sarah De Young, Executive Director, California Association of Competitive Telecommunications Companies (CALTEL)

• Hut Landon, Executive Director, San Francisco Locally Owned Business Alliance (SFLOMA)

• Kim Parker, Executive Vice President, California Employers Association (CEA)

• Stephen Cornell, Chairperson, Small Business Advocates (SBA)

• Robert T Roddick, President, Noe Valley Merchants and Professional Association (NVMPA)





Small Business Owners:

• Scott Hauge, President, CAL Insurance & Associates, Inc

• Robert Legallet, Owner, Bayview Industrial Park

• Richard Parker, Principal 450 Architects, Inc.

• Jerry Becerra, President, Barbary Insurance Brokerage

• Kevin Wallace, President, Wallace Remodeling, Inc.

• William Brugger, Partner, Kuschel & Company, LLC

• Denise Collins, CEO, Aunt Ann's Home Care

• Steve Sarver, Founder, SF Soup Co.

• Will Wenham, President, Cut Loose

• Norman Ishimoto, Owner, KI Associates

• Sam Mogannam, Owner, Bi-Rite Market

• Stephen Cornell, Owner, Brownie’s Hardware

• Scott Rodrick, President, Rodrick Foods

• Scott Rodrick, Owner, Guy Enterprises

• Benjamin Horne, President, DBA Horne Services & Sales

• Henry Karnilowicz, Owner, Occidental Express

• Ruthie Norton , Senior Vice President, CCI Financial and Insurance Solutions

• Deborah Taylor, Principal, DesignTree Studio

• Steve Mayer, CEO, Burr Pilger & Mayer

• Joanne Gomez, Owner, West Bay Counters , Inc

• Cathy Murphy, Owner, Home Instead Senior Care

• Lori Shannon, Owner, See Jane Run

• Sharon Gadberry, Director, Gadberry and Associates

• Grace Santana, Owner, Grace Santana Plumbing Contractor

• Lesley Leonhardt, Owner, Images of the North

• Steve Lombardi, Owner, Lombardi Sports

• Irwin A. Phillips, Past President: Council of District Merchants Assoc., P.P. Noriega Merch. Assoc. P.P., Clement Merch. Assoc.

• Scott S. Nelson, Founder, Tax Incentives Group

• Paul Bonini, Owner, Harrison & Bonini Inc

• Jean Eddy, President, The People Connection, Inc.

• Suzanne Tucker, Owner, Marking Solutions/One Stop Graphics

• Janet Hildreth, Owner, Tree Lovers Floors, Inc.

• Ben Stiegler, CEO, SynerTel

• Philip De Andrade, OwnerGoat Hill Pizza

• Jerome D Cizek, CFO, Morling & Co.

• Todd Parent, CEO, Extreme Pizza

• David Sahagun, Owner, Pacific Heights Chevron

• Alice Ray, CEO, Ripple Effects

• Bob McLennan, Planet Fitness San Francisco

• Joanne Ireland, President, Ireland Presentations, Inc.

• Arnie Lerner, Principal, Lerner & Associates Architects

• Joseph Ruiz, Founder, Rhapsody Painting & Environmental Services

• Rick Karp, President, Cole Hardware

• Matt Rogers, Owner, Papenhausen Hardware

• Jim Carter, Partner, Suhr Risk Services of California

• Eric L Steckel, Vice President, Bars+ Tone

• Calvin Y. Louie, CPA, CYL

• Stephen Cornell, Owner, Brownies Hardware

• Robert T Roddick, President, Noe Valley Law Office

• Michael Bernick, Attorney and Former EDD Director, Sedgwick, LLP













cc: Mayor, Ed Lee