Voters in San Francisco will decide 14 local ballot measures on November 8. Four measures are citizen initiatives and ten were referred to the ballot by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. The measures address topics such as the ability to use vehicles in the JFK Promenade, parking in Golden Gate Park, expediting housing projects, moving city elections to even-numbered years, and more.
Summaries of the measures are below:
Proposition A: Allows city employees who retired before November 6, 1996, to receive a supplemental cost of living adjustment to their pensions whether or not the retirement system is fully funded and allows the Retirement Board to enter into an individual employment contract with its executive director
Proposition B: Eliminates the Department of Sanitation and Streets and transfers its duties to the Department of Public Works and retains the Public Works Commission and the Sanitation and Streets Commission
Proposition C: Creates a Homelessness Oversight Commission to oversee the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing and requires the city controller to conduct audits of services for people experiencing homelessness
Proposition D: Expedites the approval of certain housing projects and removes the Board of Supervisors’ approval as a requirement for certain housing projects using city property or city financing
Proposition E: Expedites the approval of certain housing projects and continues requiring the Board of Supervisors’ approval for affordable housing projects using city property or city financing
Proposition F: Renews the Library Preservation Fund for 25 years, allows the city to temporarily freeze the annual minimum library funding amount when the city expects a budget deficit over $300 million, and increases the minimum hours the main library and its 27 branches must be open per week
Proposition G: Creates the Student Success Fund to provide additional grants to San Francisco Unified School District through 2038, with the city allocating $11 million to the Fund in 2024, $35 million in 2025, and $45 million in 2026
Proposition H: Changes elections for mayor, sheriff, district attorney, city attorney, and treasurer from odd-numbered years to even-numbered years (in November of presidential election years) and changes signature requirements for ballot initiatives from 5% of votes cast for the mayor to 2% of registered voters
Proposition I: Allows private motor vehicles on John F. Kennedy Drive and connector streets except from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sundays and legal holidays as well as on Saturdays from April through September
Proposition J: Upholds an ordinance adopted in May 2022 closing portions of John F. Kennedy Drive and certain connector streets in Golden Gate Park to use the area as open recreation spaces
Proposition L: Continues an existing one-half cent sales tax through 2053 for transportation project funding and allows the Transportation Authority to issue up to $1.91 billion in bonds for transportation projects
Proposition M: Allows the city to levy a tax on owners of vacant residential units in buildings with three or more units if the units have been vacant for more than 182 days in a year, at a rate between $2,500–5,000 per vacant unit, continuing through 2053, and dedicating tax revenue for rent subsidies and certain housing entities
Proposition N: Allows the city to use public funds to acquire, operate, or subsidize public parking in the underground parking garage in Golden Gate Park, dissolves the Golden Gate Park Concourse Authority, and transfers management of the garage to the Recreation and Park Commission
Proposition O: Levies a parcel tax at varying rates between $150–4,000 per parcel, beginning on July 1, 2023, and ending on June 30, 2043, with funding appropriated to the City College of San Francisco for student and workforce development programs
Proposition K, a proposed citizen initiative sponsored by the Tenants and Owners Development Corporation (TODCO), was removed from the ballot in a Superior Court ruling at the request of proponents. Sponsors referred to the measure as the Tax Amazon for Guaranteed Income proposition and designed it to levy a tax on e-commerce corporations making $2.5 million or more from online sales. John Eberling of TODCO said, “We are very strongly committed to taxing wealth and taxing the corporate greed that is going on in America and Amazon is one of the very worst. We heard they were putting out word that they wouldn’t be subject to the tax increase and that obviously was not the idea. After we heard that this was going to apply to small businesses to an extent that we did not intend, and because we were concerned Amazon was going to slip away, we thought it was better to pull it away and re-draft it so it’s airtight with regard to companies like Amazon.”
In 2022, Ballotpedia is covering local ballot measures that appear on the ballot for voters within the 100 largest cities in the U.S., within state capitals, and throughout California. You can review the coverage scope of the local ballot measures project here.
Seven statewide ballot propositions are on the statewide ballot in California. The state legislature voted to refer a constitutional amendment to provide a right to reproductive freedom to the ballot. Six citizen-initiated measures qualified for the ballot related to sports betting, K-12 art and music education funding, dialysis clinic requirements, income tax to fund zero-emission vehicle projects, and a flavored tobacco products ban.
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