Bond for homelessness, parks, and street safety

Prop A is a bond for homelessness, parks, street and sidewalk safety.

Local bonds are a great way to fund priorities since they can raise property taxes beyond the far-too-law rate of one percent dictated by 1978 Prop 13. Because property values in San Francisco are primarily land values, property taxes function nearly as land value taxes, which are one of the most efficient forms of taxation. Landlords cannot pass on land value taxes to tenants because the supply of land is fixed.

The programs this would fund are also valuable. While 2018 Prop C created the largest budget set-aside in history, locking in nearly $700 million per year to homelessness in perpetuity, there are probably some valuable uses of marginal dollars for homelessness; if nothing else, SF could give homeless people money, as an organization in Canada recently piloted, with positive results. San Francisco is sorely lacking in parks, and street and sidewalk safety have much room for improvement. Prop A funds important programs with an efficient tax. Vote yes.