FSP Recommendations for November 3 California and San Francisco General Election

Dear Friend,

As we cast our ballots this fall, the U.S. government is in an intractable war with Iran, the costs of food and housing are at levels above the means of many, ICE continues to kill and deport record numbers of migrants, and the billionaire class rakes in more profits than ever.

Although Democrats claim things will get better if they win majorities in both houses of Congress, history shows that they, like the Republicans, are on the side of big business, taking away public services and democratic rights to maximize corporate profits. Just look at how Clinton decimated welfare, Obama became the deporter-in-chief, and Biden oversaw arms shipments to support the Israeli genocide against Palestinians. In Democrat-ruled San Francisco, Mayor Lurie criminalizes unhoused people, cuts vital services, and undermines city workers’ pay. Democrats cannot stop the Trump agenda in any lasting way; it’s part of capitalism’s turn toward barbaric methods in the attempt to save itself.

Billionaires make massive contributions to whichever of the two parties has power in Congress or the White House to ensure their needs take priority over people and the planet. In the current election, they’re spending unprecedented amounts on national, statewide and local contests to continue increasing their wealth at obscene rates, to avoid paying taxes, and to support the ongoing genocide in Palestine.

With the corruption of unlimited corporate funding and two major parties that undermine the livelihoods of the working class, elections can’t replace capitalism with the humane, collective system of socialism. That will only come by organizing to unite the poor, working people, and all who are oppressed by the racism, sexism, heterosexism and xenophobia that the profit system relies on.

However, as we build an anticapitalist movement of the vast majority, we must fight to maintain the hard-won gains we’ve achieved, like the rights to organize, to strike, and to vote. The FSP stands with all people for their right to have access to the polls, to cast their votes, and to have them counted. And if the electoral results are declared fraudulent and contested by Donald Trump and his supporters, as they were in 2021, we will join the fight to defend the actual outcome.

On the California and San Francisco ballots, we know of no anticapitalist candidates to recommend – the lists consist almost exclusively of Republicans and Democrats. There are a number of propositions, sponsored by the billionaires, that would harm the working class and oppressed people. We must oppose these, and give critical support to other measures, like the statewide “billionaires’ tax,” that provide some relief to the working majority against the onslaught of the corporate class.

Please see our recommendations below and contact me if you have any questions or would like to discuss them. Also, please volunteer or organize with us as we fight escalating authoritarianism and work toward the socialist feminist future that is the antidote to the chaos of dying capitalism.

In solidarity,

Nancy Reiko Kato
Bay Area FSP Organizer

Ballot Measure Recommendations

Our recommendations are grouped according to content, often including California propositions (with numbers in their names) and San Francisco and Bay Area propositions (with letters in their names) within the same category.

CA Prop 1 – Bonds for Housing Affordability Programs – Vote NO
CA Prop 38 – Bonds for Immunology Medical Research – Vote NO

Both of these measures seek to raise funds to support worthy objectives. The problem is the method of funding, general obligation bonds. The state issues bonds to borrow the funds, which taxpayers have to pay for, plus interest, with yearly installments from the general fund for 25 years. If the state general fund were used for working class priorities, and if the 200 billionaires in the state were taxed sufficiently, there would be ample funds to support decent and affordable housing, healthcare and education for all, but instead Californians face greater impoverishment with every election.

Prop 1 would borrow $11.25 billion to fund programs to support affordable housing, through rentals and assistance for buying new homes. It does nothing to address the continuously rising costs for housing, and depends on private, for-profit developers and nonprofits to produce new residences. This paradigm has not and cannot provide the housing to meet working people’s demands. Other models like publicly owned and built social housing have proven successful in cities like Vienna, Barcelona, and Melbourne, Australia.

Prop 38 would raise $8.4 billion to make up for the loss of federal grants to fund immunology research into new treatments for Alzheimer’s disease, cancer and heart disease. The rich benefited from huge tax cuts when federal funding was cut – they are the ones who should be paying to support this necessary research. Vote NO.

Bay Area Regional Tax Measure (RTM) to Fund BART and Transit Agencies – Vote NO
SF Prop H – Parcel Tax to Fund Muni Operations – Vote NO

The Regional Transit Measure (RTM) would impose an additional sales tax of 0.5% in Alameda, Contra Costa, San Mateo, and Santa Clara counties; and 1.0% in San Francisco City and County to raise $980 million a year for public transit. There’s no dispute that BART, CalTrain, AC Transit and other agencies are critically important to people throughout the Bay Area, but this is the most regressive kind of tax that will hurt the working people who rely on them.

Prop H would implement a parcel tax on all properties in the city to produce $177 million a year for Muni. Most homeowners would pay $129 annually, with renters paying up to $65. Although the tax is scaled to charge commercial properties and larger residences more, almost every election brings yet another parcel tax, putting the average San Franciscan further behind.

Mayor Lurie, State Senator Wiener, and most City Supervisors support these two measures. We disagree and call on them to tax Open AI, Anthropic, Google, Waymo, Uber and other big businesses to fund public transportation and all necessary services.

CA Prop 37 – Loan Programs for Middle-Income Home Buyers – Vote YES

Under Prop 37, the state would create a loan program that will assist with down payments for new homes. The program would help working people who earn too much to qualify for housing assistance, but who earn too little to save the amount needed for a downpayment in California’s hyperinflated market. The loans are funded with revenue bonds paid back through the mortgages of the beneficiaries. Though the measure doesn’t address the reasons for the problem of housing unaffordability, it helps some workers without burdening taxpayers. We join the National Nurses Associations of California in supporting it.

SF Prop I – Designation of Real Property Transfer Tax Funds for Housing – Vote YES
SF Prop J – Removal of Foreclosure Exemption for Real Property Transfer Tax – Vote YES
SF Prop C – Increase Contributions to Housing Trust Fund – Vote YES

In San Francisco, voters can direct funds toward affordable housing with these three propositions. Props I and J involve the Real Estate Property Transfer Tax, an assessment on the transfer of property valued above $10 million, in other words, a tax on the rich!

Under Prop I, 50% of the revenues from this tax, about $120 million annually, would go toward building and acquiring affordable housing, including social housing, and providing rent relief and homelessness prevention. We strongly agree! However, the Real Estate Property Transfer Tax of 2020 promised that all of the revenue would go to affordable housing. In the past two years, the Mayor and Supervisors have not directed any of the funds toward housing. 100% of the Transfer Tax revenue should go toward these efforts, not just 50%! Nonetheless, Prop I is a step in the right direction, and FSP supports it critically, along with the San Francisco Tenants Union, Service Employees International Union 1021, and Senior and Disability Action and many others.

Prop J would close a tax break that corporate lenders use to avoid paying the Real Estate Property Transfer Tax when they foreclose on office towers, industrial buildings and large apartment complexes. Vote YES to raise $100-150 million annually. If Prop I also passes, half of these additional dollars will be designated for affordable housing.

Proposition C would raise the annual amount the city adds to the Housing Trust Fund, used to build, purchase, and improve affordable housing; assist home buyers with downpayments; and assist households to retain and improve their housing. It would also extend the fund to 2058. FSP is for this, but we think even more money should be made available to the fund through taxes on the likes of Zuckerberg, Brin, Altman, and Huang. Join the Council on Community Housing Organizations in voting YES.

Taxes on the rich – yes, please!

CA Prop 3 – Extend Tax on High Incomes to Fund Schools and Healthcare – Vote YES
CA Prop 40 – Impose One-Time Tax on Billionaires – Vote YES

Prop 3 keeps in place a higher income tax rate for the top 2% of earners, first approved by voters in 2012. This brings in annual proceeds of $5-15 billion, primarily used to fund education and Medi-Cal. Without Prop 3, the higher tax will expire in 2030. As the rich get wealthier by the day at working people’s expense, the last thing they deserve is another tax cut. Along with the California Federation of Teachers, California Nurses Association, and Community College League of California, FSP urges a YES vote.

Prop 40, the so-called California Billionaire Tax, aims to assess a one-time 5% tax on individuals’ assets exceeding $1 billion. The proceeds, tens of billions of dollars spread over several years, would mainly fund healthcare. This would help compensate for the $200 billion cuts to medical services and food assistance imposed by Trump’s and Congress’s “Big Beautiful Bill.” But why just a one-time wealth tax? Billionaires, with perpetually increasing assets, can afford to pay a wealth tax every year, and at a higher rate! Join FSP, SEIU – United Healthcare Workers, California League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), and California Federation of Teachers in voting YES.

CA Prop 41 – Prohibit New Taxes That Exclude Revenues from Spending Limit – Vote NO
CA Prop 42 – Prohibit New Taxes on Assets and Investments – Vote NO

Props 41 and 42 are funded by billionaires and aim to prevent Prop 40, the California Billionaire Tax, from taking effect. Prop 41 attacks any tax for which the revenues are not subject to the state spending limit, like Prop 40. And Prop 42 prohibits taxes on personal property – assets like stocks, bonds, and art collections, that aren’t real estate, the very items that Prop 40 aims to tax.

Infuriatingly, Props 41 and 42 are constitutional amendments that would take away voters’ right to bring wealth taxes to the ballot in the future! Vote NO!

CA Prop 43 – Limit Voters’ Ability to Raise Revenue for Local Government Services – Vote NO

This measure raises the threshold from a simple majority to two-thirds to pass new taxes that are proposed by voters through signature gathering. Along with Props 41 and 42, Prop 43 attacks the ability of voters to fund services and improvement through the initiative process. These are part of a trend of ballot measures attacking democracy in general (see below).

SF Prop A – Charter Changes for City Departments and Commissions – Vote NO
SF Prop D – Changes to Restrict Qualification of Ballot Measures – Vote NO
SF Prop E – City Administrator’s Authority, Contracting Changes – Vote NO
SF Prop F – Expansion of Mayor’s Authority – Vote NO

Levi Strauss heir Mayor Lurie and many of his billionaire backers are pushing this sordid set of charter amendments to concentrate power in the hands of the Mayor and unelected officials and thwart voters’ ability to tax or hold them accountable.

Prop A is a mixture of charter changes. Some reasonable ones serve as a cover for the truly anti-working class ones, which include allowing the board of the city-owned War Memorial & Performing Arts Center to contract out its operations, and giving the Mayor’s hand-picked City Administrator unchecked authority over municipal property. Worst of all, Prop A can eliminate independent oversight boards like the one that directs the “Our City, Our Home” fund that has housed over 8,400 people through taxes on large corporations. That’s why FSP joins the Coalition on Homelessness in urging a NO vote.

Prop D makes it nearly impossible for grassroots communities and organizations to bring measures to the ballot by quadrupling the number of signatures required! Big-pocketed billionaires and their corporations, who can pay signature gatherers, would be the only ones with ballot access. Along with the SF Labor Council, Senior & Disability Action, and Tenants Union, we say NO to this attack on democracy.

Prop E concentrates almost all authority for purchasing in the hands of the City Administrator, an unelected official, and doubles the Administrator’s term from five years to ten, utterly undemocratic! Vote NO to keep elected officials, who are at least nominally accountable to voters, in the process.

Prop F grants more unchecked power to the mayor. The mayor could remove many officials without cause, reorganize city departments on a whim, and hire and fire department heads directly without going through the Board of Supervisors. In these times when democracy is being stripped away, the last thing average San Franciscans need is to give the mayor more power to make decisions against our interests. Vote NO.

CA Prop 44 – Require Community Health Clinics to Spend 90% of Revenue on Services – Vote NO

On the surface, this measure appears to discourage excessive salaries for executive managers of non-profit health clinics that receive government funding and provide primary care to high-need, underserved and poor communities. But a closer look reveals that the determination of what qualifies as services by the state attorney general can exclude necessary items like blood screenings, fitness programs and transportation to appointments. Clinics failing to spend the full 90% of income on defined services can be fined and end up closing, leaving isolated patients like farmworkers without healthcare. All community clinics are led by boards that include patients – they are the ones who should make spending decisions, not the state attorney general. FSP joins the American Academy of Pediatrics, California Teachers Association and League of Women Voters in urging a NO vote.

CA Prop 45 – Expedite Environmental Review for Certain Projects – Vote NO

This measure, supported by developers, utility companies, and construction firms, shortens the time and lessens the requirements for determining potential environmental impact of projects involving housing, clean energy, water systems, health facilities, and schools, among others. Workers, naturalists, and indigenous groups fought hard to establish California’s environmental protections. This state proposition adds fuel to the federal government’s ongoing environmental assault. Along with Clean Water Action, the American Lung Association, and the National Wildlife Federation, FSP recommends a NO vote.

CA Prop 39 – Require Government-Issued Identification to Vote – Vote NO

Prop 39 was placed on the ballot by MAGA supporters who continue to spread the lie that elections are fraudulent, with non-citizens voting to tip the balance against their right-wing candidates. They also want to deny voting rights to naturalized immigrants, Black folks, the Latinx community, indigenous and trans people by requiring a government-sponsored ID to cast a ballot. Studies show that members of these communities are less likely to have such forms of identification readily available, even though they are qualified voters. Like the ACLU, Disability Rights California, and Asian Law Caucus, we say “vote NO!”

CA Prop 4 – Allow Public Funding of Electoral Campaigns – Vote YES

Public funding of elections is one method of reducing the influence of big business and billionaires and providing a means for non-wealthy candidates to run for office. Candidates receiving public funds agree to specific spending limits. Although fourteen states, many U.S. municipalities and a number of countries fund campaigns in this way, California generally prohibits public funding for elections. Prop 4 would remove this prohibition.

Public funding would make it possible for more working class people to mount campaigns. However, given the patchwork of electoral funding rules at the local, state and federal level favoring the corporate class, this measure is only a small step against the disproportionate influence of the super-wealthy. Still, it’s a move in the right direction, and we support it, along with the California Nurses Association, Mental Health Advocacy Services, and Consumer Watchdog.

SF Prop B – Establishing a Municipal Finance Corporation and a Public Bank – Vote YES

Prop B authorizes the city to establish a municipal finance corporation (MFC), a government-owned nonprofit that makes loans, the precursor to a public bank that takes deposits in addition to underwriting loans. This is a sensible start to obtain the financing needed for projects that benefit working people and oppressed communities, like affordable social housing, sustainable energy and job programs. Corporate banks, driven by profit, fund war, fossil fuel exploration, and unregulated artificial intelligence to the exclusion of human needs. In this period of privatization, it is refreshing to have the possibility of establishing a public bank, but the community will need to fight to ensure that it stays true to its mission and isn’t co-opted by corporate-funded politicians. FSP joins with Democratic Socialists of America, SF Labor Council and Small Business Forward in recommending a YES vote.

Summary of Freedom Socialist Party Recommendations

California Ballot Propositions

San Francisco Ballot Propositions

Bay Area Regional Measures