San Francisco Moves Ahead With Twitter Tax Break Plan
SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) - A San Francisco Board of Supervisors committee voted Wednesday to extend local tax breaks to Twitter and other companies that would relocate to a blighted section of the city.
KCBS' Barbara Taylor Reports:
The Budget and Finance sub-committee approved the proposal to give companies in the Mid-Market and Tenderloin neighborhoods a six-year pass on the payroll tax for new workers. The legislation would also exempt those companies from paying payroll taxes on employees' stock options, should they go public.
It was prompted by Twitter's threats to relocate to the Peninsula.
Opponents, including leaders of SEIU Local 1021, the largest city employees' union, argued that a tax break is the last thing the city needs when some city officials are pushing for service cuts and pension reform to balance the budget.
In the meantime Zynga, the game company behind Farmville and Mafia Wars, and the software-maker Mozilla, are both expressing interest in relocating to the mid-Market area.
The proposal next goes to the full board for approval.
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