No tax breaks for the richest corporations!

People's Budget Collaorative demonstrated at City Hall on February 3rd, against $6.4 million dollars of property tax reduction that The Shorenstein Company is seeking for its Bank of America Tower. It was a great, upbeat way to start out this year's budget fight.

Members of several organizations were present and expressed their outrage that San Francisco's biggest and richest commercial property owner should demand anything since they have already received $12 million in reductions on the property. Speakers described the effects of budget cuts on the homeless, on day laborers, on the health system, and on the disability community. Supervisors Daly and Maxwell demanded Shorenstein pay their long-overdue fair share of the City's budget. Several people honked seeing our signs reading "Cough Up, B of A," "Corporate Tax Cuts Kill," and "B of A, you owe US money!"

Once inside the Assessment Appeals Hearing, it was clear that they were comepletely unaccustomed to public attention being focussed on their proceedings. Some twenty speakers gave testimony, including people and organizations we never heard of. The head of the Committee for (No) Jobs, one of only two speakers supporting Shorenstein, mumbled some nonsense about playing by the rules, but was clearly uncomfortable and shied away from a newsperson trying to record his testimony as though the newsperson were a noxious insect.

The turnouts to the demonstration and hearing were not huge, but were significant and encouraging, and show there is wide interest in this issue. This should increase as budget cuts unfold.

The next hearing on the Shorenstein appeal will be in the beginning of March, which should give us more time to organize and reach more groups. (We only had a week for today's action.)

People's Budget meetings are 1 PM, Mondays, at St Anthony's at 121 Golden Gate (between Leavenworth and Jones.) Please come and join the fight for City services and economic justice.