Rep. Nancy Pelosi is on record calling for Mayor Daniel Lurie to speak out against tech giant Airbnb for suing San Francisco to challenge its tax bill.
At a San Francisco Democratic Party meeting Wednesday night, a bevy of politicians — including Pelosi — voted to back a statement aimed at pressuring Airbnb to drop its $120 million lawsuit against San Francisco, which they claim is draining city coffers at a dire time.
While Lurie doesn’t have the power to single-handedly halt the lawsuit, the Dems want him to use his City Hall bully pulpit to put pressure on Airbnb.
Lurie has said San Francisco needs to correct its budget by making structural changes — a bureaucratic phrase translating to “cuts” — instead of shaking tax dollars from companies. Lurie has gone on a public relations tour to lure companies back to San Francisco to revitalize the tax base. Late last year, Airbnb extended the lease for its San Francisco headquarters through 2037.
That stance didn’t sit well with the roughly 100 workers and leaders from unions across San Francisco in attendance at Wednesday’s meeting. Members of IFPTE Local 21, United Educators of San Francisco, UNITE HERE Local 2, SEIU 1021, the SF Building & Construction Trades Council, and others crowded into a small second-floor room at the West Bay Pilipino Multi-Service Center to pressure Democrats to hold Airbnb accountable.
“We all got to pay our taxes. None of us get a break, and none of us can say we’ll sue the government for having to pay taxes,” said Olga Miranda, president of SEIU Local 87, representing city janitors. “This is a moment for the Democratic Party to capture a good fucking fight that we all love to have.”
The mayor’s office declined to comment.
A staffer casting the vote on Pelosi’s behalf, Gary McCoy, read a statement admonishing Airbnb for not cooperating with the city after voters approved Proposition M in November. The measure raised taxes on medium-size businesses but lowered those of San Francisco’s largest corporations, including Airbnb, in hopes of keeping them in the city.
“Speaker Pelosi appreciates the value these companies add to the city, and with their success comes responsibility,” McCoy told the Democrats. “The city is facing a budget deficit, and basic services are in jeopardy.”
Maintaining the budget, he added, “requires everyone’s participation.”
A looming unknown is driving the unions’ activism: Layoffs are on the table as the city grapples with the $820 million budget deficit, but Lurie has yet to announce how many jobs will be lost. The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency this week was among the first city agencies to begin jettisoning staff.
Airbnb is not the only company challenging taxes on gross receipts, hoping for tweaks in the city’s law that could relieve them of paying millions. But the size of Airbnb’s lawsuit — the money it’s seeking is more than a quarter of all the lawsuits challenging business taxes in the city — has drawn the ire of unions.
“While we can’t comment on active litigation, Airbnb complies with its tax obligations,” a company spokesperson wrote. “We’re committed to ensuring San Francisco remains a great place to live and work. That’s why we extended the lease for our global HQ in the City through 2037.”
Supervisor Matt Dorsey, who is a member of the local Democratic Party board, said Airbnb knows its largesse can force the hands of city leaders.
“What bothers me about this is that when the market closed today, the market capitalization of Airbnb was $37.5 billion,” Dorsey said at the meeting. “They didn’t have to file this lawsuit, but they know that they have us over a barrel in a budget downturn. This is forcing our hands, possibly, to reach some kind of a settlement.”
Accordingly, the unions mounted pressure on the gathered Democrats.
The high stakes became evident as tempers flared during the final hours of the meeting, which stretched nearly to midnight.
SF Democratic Party Chair Nancy Tung and other moderates, who often align with tech corporations, tried to shift the vote on the Airbnb resolution to a future meeting. Progressive Democrats on the party board said that would make the resolution far less meaningful, because the city’s budget process will be nearly done.
Supervisor Connie Chan, a progressive who co-sponsored the measure with Democratic Party board member Gordon Mar, viewed the attempt to postpone the vote as parliamentary trickery to suppress the resolution without killing it outright.
During the meeting, Chan leaped from her seat, pointed a finger at Tung, and let her have it.
“This is the least Democratic process that I’ve ever experienced,” Chan said. “And all of this is going to continue to go on, and if we do not vote on this, I am not too sure if I can continue to stay as an elected member of the San Francisco [Democratic Party].”
Tung told Chan she believes corporations should pay the taxes they owe, but that means the measure should be aimed only at condemning Airbnb. “I don’t think that it should be directed to the mayor,” she said.
The measure ended up passing nearly unanimously, with one abstention from Supervisor Bilal Mahmood. Tung supported the measure.