Growing Jobs and Our Economy

One of the Mayor’s most important responsibilities is leading our economy. I am focused on creating jobs and rebuilding our City’s middle class. As Supervisor, I worked with many local entrepreneurs — from restaurateurs to biotech startups — who were spending too much time jumping through bureaucratic hurdles. As Mayor, I will leverage my years of experience with City processes to make it easier and more attractive for businesses to start and succeed in San Francisco.

I don’t think we’ve done enough to leverage the brain trust of business leaders who’ve kept their jobs in San Francisco. As Mayor, I’d incorporate the expertise of business and labor leaders into our city’s economic and business policy, and ask them to engage in the improvement of our City by partnering with schools to develop our local workforce.

As the next Mayor of San Francisco, my focus will be on bringing together all leaders and stakeholders to:

• Enhance education;
• Reform business taxes;
• Grow arts, entertainment and nightlife sectors; and
• Change city contracting to promote locally owned businesses 

The Innovation Workforce Begins in Schools  

The future of our economy is linked with our ability to improve our public school system. To create more jobs in San Francisco, we must focus on creating strong community schools that prepare our young people for our economic future. As Mayor, I will focus on investing our City dollars so that every child comes to school ready to learn in a school that succeeds.

Our education system must serve today’s families, while training the skilled workforce of tomorrow.  We need to do more than ask our leaders to write checks for school programs. We need their guidance to develop career pathways in competitive workforce areas like the building trades’ vocational training at John O’Connell High School and the Biotech program at Lincoln High School.

Please click here for my plan.

Reforming Taxation

As Supervisor, I have tried to be a creative problem-solver, an advocate for helping our vulnerable populations, and a pragmatist who recognizes that a more aggressive tax-and-spend approach will drive business away and undermine our economy.

Payroll taxes are a job inhibitor. I co-sponsored legislation to support three targeted payroll tax exemptions focused on creating biotech jobs for San Franciscans, and supported the Mid-Market exemption. But exemptions are not a long-term strategy for the City’s financial growth. We must develop a better model.

I would like to see the tax burden on business lessened, particularly on those pockets of the business community that are over-burdened.  I will partner with our excellent City Treasurer, Jose Cisneros, and Controller Ben Rosenfield to pursue the Los Angeles approach to reform business taxes.  They brought in an outside consultant and worked methodically with stakeholders over three years to formulate a plan approved overwhelmingly by voters.

Arts, Entertainment and Nightlife Economy

It used to be that a major company would locate a plant or office in San Francisco and the workers would come. Now, the leading businesses come here because of our creative, talented and diverse workforce.

No one has worked harder to keep nightlife vibrant in San Francisco. Young people don’t climb onto those buses for Genentech, Apple and Google to come home to a City where the sidewalk rolls up at 9:00pm.

Arts and music are central to tourism and we need to constantly look for new experiences. Visitors will only trek to see our beautiful Golden Gate Bridge so many times. It’s the arts, music and nighttime destinations that make people come back.

I will create a dedicated Arts and Entertainment Liaison within the Mayor’s Office of Economic and Workforce Development to support the “other 9 to 5” in our economy; I will leverage America’s Cup and other large City projects to invest in sustainable businesses that promote the local arts and music scene; and, I will make sure the Mid-Market Plans encourage vibrant nightlife options, and will work with SFPD and neighbors to mitigate concerns.

Rebuilding Middle Class Families

 I supported Local Hire and believe that the Mayor’s Office of Economic and Workforce Development must re-align to support job creation through this Ordinance. Local Hire is estimated to generate over 300 new jobs for San Franciscans per year and generate nearly $177 million for the general fund over the next 10 years.

Minority-owned businesses are the most likely to hire locally, and give members of their community a job. As Mayor, I will take an active role to connect MBE/WBE subs with larger primes so that they can get jobs, stay viable, and help build up our middle class. I will work with small business groups to help reform the City’s contracting process to provide meaningful opportunities so that City money is invested in local enterprises. I will make sure that the Mayor's Office of Economic and Workforce Development (MOEWD) hires community-connected staff to focus on many major, billion-dollar city initiatives, such as high-speed rail, Hunters Point Shipyard, America's Cup, and Treasure Island, among others. This role will ensure that we engage and utilize minority and women-owned businesses and that there is sufficient job readiness for individuals from the community.  

For more information, please click here for my Black Agenda.