Thursday, May 7, 2026
Fleecing the taxpayer in perpetuity:The measure would also significantly raise tax rates and lock them in place by requiring voter approval to reduce it, turning the executive tax into a larger and more permanent revenue stream.
San Francisco’s CEO tax fight intensifies as new report sounds alarm
San Francisco has been a case study in how not to run a city, but a new report is amplifying the alarm as voters consider a CEO tax that some are calling a poison pill for the epicenter of tech.
The Bay Area Council Economic Institute released a study on Wednesday that found eye-watering business taxes are driving away San Francisco businesses and making it nearly impossible to fully recover from the pandemic. Payroll employment in the city is still 8.6% below pre-pandemic levels, while office vacancy has climbed to about 33% — the highest among major U.S. cities.
Downtown business formation also has essentially collapsed — falling from 711 new firms in 2017 to just 25 last year — as more companies seek out financially greener pastures, according to the report.
The report comes as San Francisco voters are set to weigh in on Measures C and D, two competing proposals on the June 2 ballot that would radically reshape the city’s business tax system.
The think tank’s report found that a hypothetical payment processing firm would owe about $60.5 million a year in San Francisco business taxes — compared to roughly $5.1 million in Seattle.
Meanwhile, a mock cloud storage company would pay about $24.2 million, more than three times what it would face in competing cities.
“San Francisco continues to offer extraordinary advantages in talent, innovation, and global connectivity, but this report makes clear that the city’s tax structure has become a growing competitive disadvantage,” said Jeff Bellisario, executive director of the Bay Area Council Economic Institute.
“Other knowledge-economy cities facing many of the same post-pandemic challenges have recovered more successfully than San Francisco. This report shows that tax competitiveness matters, particularly in industries where companies can increasingly deploy talent and investment across multiple regions.”
Measure C, which is backed by business interests, would expand exemptions for smaller businesses in San Francisco — raising the cutoff from $5 million to $7.5 million in revenue — while accelerating scheduled tax increases on larger companies, particularly through higher executive pay tax rates starting in 2027.
Measure D, which is supported by labor unions and opposed by Mayor Daniel Lurie and the city’s Chamber of Commerce, would broaden the CEO tax by basing the figure on a company’s entire workforce — not just San Francisco employees.
The measure would also significantly raise tax rates and lock them in place by requiring voter approval to reduce it, turning the executive tax into a larger and more permanent revenue stream.
Neighbors for a Better San Francisco, a moderate-leaning advocacy group, announced in February it planned to spend $10 million to kill the CEO tax, while other political groups in the city are actively opposing the measure.
“Every other city is rolling out the welcome mat for businesses while Prop D’s proponents are trying to lock the door,” Steven Buss, co-director of the political advocacy group GrowSF, told The Post.
“Prop D doubles down on the exact policies that are driving jobs out and driving vacancies up. Prop D is how we turn our recovery into a collapse.”
The Bay Area Council’s report frames the upcoming election as a critical moment, warning that the city’s cost of doing business is already pushing companies to rethink whether to grow — or even stay — in San Francisco.
San Francisco is clearly losing ground compared to other cities,
While places like Austin have added jobs — up 17.4% since 2020 — San Francisco is still digging out of a hole. The city posted the largest losses in office-based industries like tech and finance, which are the backbone of the local economy.
The think tank’s report argues that taxes are a key differentiator.
San Francisco is one of the few major cities that taxes businesses directly on gross receipts, payroll and other factors, layering multiple taxes on top of each other. Even after recent reforms, many companies actually saw their bills go up, the study found.
In one example, a firm’s annual tax burden jumped from about $19.2 million to $24.2 million after the latest changes took effect.
The shift to remote work has had one of the biggest impacts on San Francisco’s bottom line.
Weekday foot traffic is still hovering at roughly half of what it was before COVID, and average monthly sales tax revenue downtown has fallen from about $39 million before the pandemic to around $26 million.
San Francisco is now staring down the barrel of a projected $643 million two-year budget deficit, and Lurie began a round of layoffs by handing out 127 pink slips last month.
Up to 500 more workers could be laid off as the city attempts to balance its budget.
Lurie slammed both measures C and D in a statement to The Post, saying this is the third time in five years the issue will go to voters after San Francisco passed comprehensive business tax reform in 2024.
“That’s a clear sign of a broken system that rewards insiders at the expense of everyday San Franciscans,” Lurie said.
The mayor noted that “neither measure moves San Francisco forward.”
“We cannot be complacent about our recovery, and dueling proposals that produce longer, more confusing ballots reward division over consensus –– only benefitting those who know how to game a broken system,” Lurie said.
“It’s time to turn the page on a ballot system that obstructs the progress and accountability San Franciscans deserve. I will not support either of these measures, but I am taking steps to fix the broken system that got us here.”
Lurie said he intends to take a measure to reform the city charter to voters in the fall “to fix our bloated city charter and a deeply flawed initiative system, and keep San Francisco’s recovery moving forward.”
Nearly half of inmates released under then-NC Gov. Roy Cooper during COVID have reoffended — including 18 charged with murder
Nearly half of inmates released under then-NC Gov. Roy Cooper during COVID have reoffended — including 18 charged with murder
WASHINGTON — A mass release of North Carolina prisoners under Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper during the COVID-19 pandemic had a devastating effect on public safety — with nearly half of the sprung inmates going on to commit more crimes, according to a Post review of state records and reports.
At least 3,500 convicts were released as part of a little-known settlement between Cooper’s administration and civil rights groups in February 2021 — and The Post found more than 600 of those later committed serious felonies like homicides, sex offenses, or other violent crimes.
A staggering 18 of the prisoners released have been charged with murder in the four years since.
In all, North Carolina’s Sentencing and Policy Advisory Commission found in a 2024 report that the recidivism rate for the 3,500 released as part of the settlement was 48%, higher than the rate for the nearly 13,000 released over the course of fiscal year 2021 (44%).
Dark secrets of Fresno biolab revealed as Chinese national convicted in nationwide scheme
Dark secrets of Fresno biolab revealed as Chinese national convicted in nationwide scheme
A 64-year-old Chinese national has been convicted by a federal jury of selling more than a million fraudulent COVID-19 tests nationwide out of a Fresno biolab during the pandemic.
The Department of Justice said that Jia Bei Zhu was found guilty of fraudulently selling nearly $4 million worth of the faulty tests out of his Fresno-based company Universal Meditech Inc (UMI) to customers across the US.
He was convicted on nearly a dozen counts including, one for making a false statement to the FDA, eight counts of substantive wire fraud, and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
“This verdict holds the defendant accountable for actions that exploited a public health crisis for his own gain,” US Attorney Eric Grant said about the conviction.
“He flouted the lawful authority of the FDA and deliberately deceived the public by repackaging low-quality, foreign-made test kits at a time when accuracy and reliability were critical.”
Between August 2020 and March 2023, Zhu, his romantic partner Zhaoyan Wang and others at UMI “conspired with each other to import faulty COVID tests from China and then sell them to customers based” on lies.
The DOJ said that Zhu lied that the tests were approved by the FDA, that they were made in the USA, that they came from a certified lab, and that they actually worked.
It was revealed at trial that Zhu and Wang hired employees that wouldn’t ask questions.
Some of those employees testified that they knew what was going down but they were either too afraid of losing their job or too scared of Zhu to stop selling the fraudulent tests and blow the whistle.
Zhu’s scheme was first uncovered in mid-2022 after one of his victims “filed a civil lawsuit against UMI,” the DOJ said. That sparked an investigation of the Fresno lab where authorities discovered the unsanitary facility which lacked the proper medical equipment to make the tests. The inspection also showed “hundreds of boxes of COVID tests from China,” per the DOJ report.
In an attempt to escape his lawsuit, authorities said Zhu moved the operation to a clandestine lab in Reedley, 20 miles south of Fresno. The DOJ said he changed the name of the lab, his own name, and lied to authorities about his connection to UMI or the new lab. But authorities remained on the case.
City officials in Reedley then got involved in December 2022 after a code enforcement officer noticed a green garden hose protruding from a warehouse in the city, where they found an illegal biolab. Zhu was arrested in October 2023.
“This conduct, tied to the unlawful operations uncovered at the Reedley laboratory, put lives at risk,” the US attorney said. “Our office remains committed to prosecuting those who endanger the public through fraud, especially in matters affecting the health and safety of our communities.”
FBI Sacramento Special Agent in Charge Sid Patel added about the verdict, “Mr. Zhu saw a public health crisis and chose to profit from it by misrepresenting the origin, quality, and FDA approval status of his tests with the intent to flood the market with misbranded medical devices.”
Wang has also been charged in the case, but fled from the US before Zhu’s arrest and remains a fugitive from justice in China, per the DOJ.
Zhu could be locked up for a long time with the various charges against him. He faces not only statutory penalties of 20 years in prison for the conspiracy charge and each of the wire fraud charges, but five years in prison for the false statements charge, and an additional three years in prison for the fraudulent devices, per the DOJ.
Zhu is scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 24.
Vote integrity
Fury as Humboldt County finds huge trove of uncounted ballots for controversial Prop 50 vote
Anti Semitism on the left
Dozens of Green Party Candidates Investigated over Alleged Antisemitism: Report
The insurgent Green Party is reportedly investigating dozens of its council candidates for alleged antisemitism as the multicultural-leftist faces having its momentum stalled by scandal.
According to a report from the Daily Mail, over 30 Green candidates for local councils are being investigated by their own party amid accusations of widespread antisemitism within the far-left party run by Jewish-heritage London Assembly Member Zack Polanski.
The issue came to the fore last week after two Green council candidates, Saiqa Ali and Sabine Mairey, were both reportedly arrested on “suspicion of stirring up racial hatred” over alleged antisemitic social media posts.
The left-wing Labour Party, which has been bleeding supporters to the more radical Greens, is said to have produced a dossier of social media posts by 25 Green Party candidates, supposedly including a string of “harrowing anti-Semitism, dangerous conspiracy theories and appalling comments supporting Hamas.”
Meanwhile, Green leader Polanski, who has openly courted the UK Muslim vote, was revealed to have liked posts that accused Prime Minister Starmer of being on the payroll of Israel and high-profile Jews.
Dozens of Green Party Candidates Investigated over Alleged Antisemitism: Report
The insurgent Green Party is reportedly investigating dozens of its council candidates for alleged antisemitism as the multicultural-leftist faces having its momentum stalled by scandal.
According to a report from the Daily Mail, over 30 Green candidates for local councils are being investigated by their own party amid accusations of widespread antisemitism within the far-left party run by Jewish-heritage London Assembly Member Zack Polanski.
The issue came to the fore last week after two Green council candidates, Saiqa Ali and Sabine Mairey, were both reportedly arrested on “suspicion of stirring up racial hatred” over alleged antisemitic social media posts.
The left-wing Labour Party, which has been bleeding supporters to the more radical Greens, is said to have produced a dossier of social media posts by 25 Green Party candidates, supposedly including a string of “harrowing anti-Semitism, dangerous conspiracy theories and appalling comments supporting Hamas.”
Meanwhile, Green leader Polanski, who has openly courted the UK Muslim vote, was revealed to have liked posts that accused Prime Minister Starmer of being on the payroll of Israel and high-profile Jews.
In the wake of the recent apparently antisemitic mass stabbing attack in Golders Green, London, Polanski came under heavy criticism for sharing a post which claimed that Met Police officers were “repeatedly and violently kicking a mentally ill man in the head” while attempting to detain the knifeman.
The post drew the ire of Met Police chief Mark Rowley, who described it as “inaccurate and misinformed commentary” while describing the heroic actions of the officers as “nothing short of extraordinary”. For his part, Polanski accused Britain’s top law enforcement officer of interfering in the elections by publicly denouncing his post.
Regardless, the incident appeared to have seriously damaged the rising leftist star’s sheen, with a YouGov survey finding that Polanski’s unfavourability rating rose by a staggering 8 per cent following the Golders Green attack, to 47 per cent, compared to just 22 per cent favourable.
Prime Minister Starmer was withering in his criticism of the Green leader, saying on Friday: “You have to make a decision in that split moment according to the situation as you understand it to be. And for politicians to wade in, as Zack Polanski did, is disgraceful. He’s not fit to lead any political party.”
Controversy surrounding the Green leader continued on Tuesday, with The Timesreporting that he had falsely claimed in 2022 to be a British Red Cross spokesman while running for a leadership role in the Greens.
Speaking on the BBC’s Today programme on Wednesday — the day before voters head to the polls for local elections across the UK — Polanski admitted that he had used “the wrong word” when describing his role with the Red Cross, which appears to have amounted to hosting fundraisers for the charity.
Mr Polanski’s past has become fodder for his opponents and the British tabloids, with the London Assembly member reportedly previously claiming that he had the ability to increase the size of women’s breasts through the power of hypnosis.
While he claims to have been “misrepresented”, the BBC revealed that in 2013, Polanski told BBC Radio Humberside that there was “anecdotal evidence, at least, of a growth in breast size” as a result of his hypnosis technique.
Commenting on his opponent’s latest scandal on Wednesday, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage quipped that perhaps Mr Polanski is a “fantasist”.
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