San Francisco homeless tax passes after push from Salesforce founder Benioff
Salesforce founder and co-CEO Marc Benioff's hard work pushing the homeless tax measure to solve the crisis in San Francisco paid off. As of Wednesday, 60 percent of voters voted in favor compared to 40 percent against.
Last week Benioff was spreading the message to the business community. “This is a very serious crisis of homeless right here in San Francisco,” Benioff told FOX Business.
The Proposition C initiative is set to impose a corporate tax on businesses with over $50 million in revenue to fund the city’s homeless facilities and services.
“We need a half of one percent tax to make this happen and that is what we are advocating, that’s why I am supporting Proposition C,” Benioff said on FOX Business' “After the Bell.”
Salesforce is the largest employer and tech company in San Francisco worth $100 billion. The stock has gained over 31 percent this year.
| Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CRM | SALESFORCE INC. | 294.72 | +3.35 | +1.15% |
“It’s critical for my business that this happens because homeless is becoming a material problem for Salesforce,” Benioff said.
The state’s Proposition C is estimated to raise $300 million a year and as many as 400 businesses would be affected if the bill passes.
San Francisco is one of the most innovative cities in America creating hundreds of billions of dollars of market capitalization.
“In San Francisco, we need prop C because we need to generate the money to build those shelters and to get these people off the streets,” Benioff said.