San Francisco voters have rejected Proposition I, which would have dedicated half of the transfer tax on real-estate sales of more than $10 million to affordable housing, including social housing, Mission Local reported. KQED’s Associated Press tally, updated at 7:01 p.m. PT on Nov. 10, showed 166,070 no votes, or 51.6%, to 155,384 yes, or 48.3%. The results are unofficial.
Why it matters: Mission Local said the measure faced about $2.8 million in opposition spending from real-estate groups, developers, construction unions and others, and that Mayor Daniel Lurie also opposed it. The transfer-tax revenue, estimated at more than $100 million a year and now going to the general fund, would have been locked to housing uses, and the tax rate would have required another vote of the people to change.
Supporters wanted a permanent housing set-aside after the 2020 tax increase was not legally earmarked for housing. Critics, including the mayor, called the plan a “slush fund”; Mission Local reported that the city’s former controller and affordable-housing developers disputed that description, saying the mayor’s housing office already tightly controls such funds. Venture capitalist Michael Moritz, the developer Related, the San Francisco Apartment Association and the Chamber of Commerce were among the large opposition donors, the outlet said.
A separate housing measure, Proposition C, to grow the city’s affordable housing trust fund to $125 million a year, was passing easily. The same Nov. 10 Associated Press tally put Prop. C at 266,565 yes votes, or 81.7%, to 59,349 no, or 18.2%.