Higher Taxes Could Encourage Sprawl

Proposed tax hikes in San Francisco could hurt the region's smart growth efforts by encouraging businesses to move out of the center city.

1 minute read

July 13, 2006, 8:00 AM PDT

By Christian Madera @http://www.twitter.com/cpmadera

In a recent opinion piece, Jim Wunderman, President and CEO of the Bay Area Council, complains that two tax measures proposed by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors will push business from downtown and housing farther away from job centers, reversing the progress the region has made towards smart growth development.

"While San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom has seriously courted business development and has aggressively pushed to provide 15,000 transit-accessible housing units by 2010, he has been stymied by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors."

The two proposed measures, a increase in the gross receipts tax and a mandated health insurance program financed by employers, would add to an already burdensome environment for businesses, argues Wunderman, and worsen the "spiral of sprawl", where companies follow the "siren song of the lowest taxes" out to the suburbs.

FULL STORY: San Francisco supervisors -- champions of suburban sprawl

Monday, July 10, 2006 in The San Francisco Chronicle

Government / Politics Land Use California

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