San Francisco's Proposition D, the "Overpaid Executive Pay Tax," is on the June 2026 ballot, and critics say its populist branding conceals a damaging reality: it doesn't tax CEOs at all, but instead imposes an 800% increase in gross receipts taxes that would hit grocery stores, pharmacies, and retailers hardest while exempting major tech companies. The measure shifts the pay-ratio calculation to include a company's global workforce, dramatically inflating tax exposure for businesses like Safeway while leaving high-paying tech firms largely unaffected. With SF's downtown office vacancy still near one-third and companies like Stripe, Schwab, and Square already having fled the city's tax burden, opponents argue Prop D would accelerate the exodus at exactly the wrong moment.
Prop D's 800% rate hike exempts every major tech company while hitting grocery stores, pharmacies, and coffee shops hard.
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.