San Francisco's Proposition D — branded the "Overpaid CEO Tax" — is on the June 2026 ballot, but critics say the fine print tells a different story: the measure exempts major tech companies while hitting grocery stores, pharmacies, and coffee shops with an 800% gross receipts tax increase that CEOs themselves won't pay. The debate is unfolding against a broader backdrop of SF's surprising AI-era startup boom and ongoing fights over downtown recovery, with opponents arguing the tax would accelerate business departures that have already cost the city companies worth $400 billion in market cap.
Prop D's 800% rate hike exempts every major tech company while hitting grocery stores, pharmacies, and coffee shops hard.
Tom Steyer renamed a 1978 Democratic law after Donald Trump and called it a plan. The loophole is real. The history, and the math, are not.
San Francisco is the only tech hub in America with growing startup formation—and city hall is doing everything it can to drive companies out.
SF Chronicle says murals can revive empty buildings. Meanwhile, the city's about to make it impossible to do business downtown.
It doesn't tax CEOs. It's an 800% gross receipts hike that hits Safeway shoppers while executives pay nothing.
Unions want an 800% tax increase disguised as class warfare—and they're breaking a deal they made just last year.
Labor coalition wants an 800% tax hike while 1/3 of downtown sits empty. They're breaking the deal they made last year.