San Francisco makes poor, workers pay for budget crisis

The capitalist economic crisis continues to wreck havoc on the lives of poor and working people across the country. The latest attack comes from the city of San Francisco. On Dec. 11, Mayor Gavin Newsom announced $118 million in budget cuts that will result in layoffs of over 400 city workers. According to news reports, the city is facing a $575 million budget deficit for next year.

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom should be taxing corporations, not laying off workers.

Robert Haaland of the Service Employees International Union, which represents city workers, was quoted in the local media stating, “As far as we can tell, the pain is all at the bottom.” Haaland noted that three-quarters of those laid off are direct services providers. The Health Department is facing $26 million in cuts in mental health programs and homeless services.

The impact of the cuts will hardly affect, if at all, the rich that live in the city and benefit from all city services. It will affect the poor and working class for whom it is becoming more difficult to provide the basic needs for them and their families.

In spite of the disproportionate effect the cuts will have on low-income and working-class people, the business community will continue to benefit from operating in the city while making meager contributions to the city budget. Thirty-two percent of the city budget will go to maintaining the local transit system, the public infrastructure and the airport, without which businesses cannot function.

Instead of cutting services of any kind to the poor and workers of the city, the city should be taxing the corporations that pay only 6 percent of the city budget. These corporations profit twice: first from the labor of the workers and then from infrastructure and services provided by the city—both funded by the disproportionate taxing of the working class.

There are numerous transnational corporations based in San Francisco that have made billions from the local economy as well from global exploitation. A tiny 1 percent surcharge could be levied against these companies to avoid the layoffs and close the budget deficit.

Those corporations and their respective 2007 profits include Del Monte, $169 million; PG&E, $991 million; URS, $113 million; McKesson Corporation, $751 million; and Wells Fargo Bank, $8.4 billion. Taxing these five corporations alone an extra 1 percent would raise $105 million. Other corporations headquartered in San Francisco include Bechtel, Dolby Laboratories, Industrial Light and Magic, Hills Bros., The Sharper Image and VISA.

If all these corporations were taxed proportionately for their use of city services, not only would there be no budget crisis, but the city could greatly expand services, provide free mass transit and improve the quality of life for the hundreds of thousands of workers who live and work in the city. This unhampered looting of city resources by these mega-profiteers shows unambiguously whose interests the government serves in the absence of an organized fight by the workers.