Our November 2016 endorsements

Local Candidates

SUPERVISOR DISTRICT 1: Sandra Lee Fewer

SUPERVISOR DISTRICT 3: Aaron Peskin

SUPERVISOR DISTRICT 5: Dean Preston

SUPERVISOR DISTRICT 7: Norman Yee

SUPERVISOR DISTRICT 9: Hillary Ronen

SUPERVISOR DISTRICT 11: Kimberly Alvarenga

STATE SENATE DISTRICT 11: Jane Kim

BART BOARD DISTRICT 9: Bevan Dufty

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Local / Regional Ballot Measures

Ballot Letter	Working Title / Reason for Position	SFT Position
B	City College Parcel Tax Extension and Increase / Don’t like being asked for more money, but without it CCSF might not survive. Current problems largely caused by the ACCJC.	Yes
C	Loans to Finance Acquisition and Rehabilitation of Affordable Housing (Bonds) / This merely expands the uses to which an existing bond measure may be put, to encourage more affordable housing.	Yes
D	Vacancy Appointments / Currently the Mayor effectively takes over the BOS every time there is a mid-term vacancy.	Yes
E	Responsibility for the Maintenance of Street Trees / Property owners often cannot afford this responsibility, and why should they?	Yes
H	Public Advocate / Right now there is no unconflicted entity looking out for the public interest. Worked great in NYC.	Yes
J	Funding Set-Asides for Homelessness and Transportation / Another set-aside! Haven’t we asked them to stop doing this? About 1/3 of the money would go to… street resurfacing. If we made Muni work (which this measure will not do) and people could actually ride it, there would be more revenue, fare prices would come down, and we would not need to levy regressive sales taxes for subsidies.	No
K	Sales Tax / K is the funding for Prop J. Let’s raise the sales tax on homeless people to resurface streets! Will also hurt local businesses.	No
L	MTA Appointments and Budget / Would offset the Mayor’s control over MTA	Yes
M	Housing and Development Commission / Would set this up as a function independent of the Mayor’s office. Not costly.	Yes
O	Office Development in Candlestick Point and Hunters Point / Ridiculous give-away to Lennar, put on ballot by Lennar.	No
P	Competitive bidding for affordable housing projects on City property / This measure was put on the ballot by realtors to literally prevent affordable housing from being built.	No
Q	Prohibiting Tents on Public Sidewalks / The tents aren’t hurting anyone; existing laws already prevent blocking sidewalks. Another mean-spirited attempt to criminalize poverty.	No
R	Neighborhood Crime Unit / Diverts police from investigating real crime; staffing decisions should be made by the police department.	No
S	Allocation of Hotel Tax Funds / Will help preserve what little remains of SF’s arts scene.	Yes
T	Restricting Gifts and Campaign Contributions from Lobbyists, Lobbyist Contributions and Bundling / Will help reduce bribery of public officials.	Yes
U	Affordable Housing Requirements for Market-Rate Development Projects / Put on by realtors to make “affordable” housing cost much more.	No
W	Real Estate Transfer Tax on Properties Over $5 Million / Would pay City College tuitions, make money for the general fund, AND discourage real estate speculation	Yes
X	Preserving Space for Neighborhood Arts, Small Businesses and Community Services in Certain Neighborhoods / Will help preserve what little remains of SF’s arts scene	Yes
RR	BART Safety, Reliability and Traffic Relief (bond) / BART needs the upgrade	Yes

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State Ballot Measures

Ballot Number	Summary / Reason for Position	SFT Position
54	Requires bills to be in print for 72-hours before they are voted on unless overruled by a 2/3 vote; requires all proceedings (except closed sessions) to be recorded and available on the Internet / Will reduce last minute dirty tricks.	Yes
56	Increases cigarette tax by $2.00 per pack, with funds going to existing healthcare programs; also for tobacco use prevention/control programs, tobacco-related disease research and law enforcement, University of California physician training, dental disease prevention programs, and administration / These taxes have been successful in getting people to quit smoking.	Yes
58	Repeals Prop 227, allowing bilingual education in schools / English-only education is unfair to kids who don’t speak it yet.	Yes
59	Resolution asking legislature to work to overturn Citizens United / Why the hell not?	Yes
62	Repeals CA death penalty / The death penalty is expensive and kills a lot of innocent people.	Yes
63	Prohibits possession of large capacity ammunition clips; requires DOJ approval and background check to purchase ammunition / We want to help Hillary take your guns away.	Yes
65	Would make profits for single-use bag sales revert to environmental organizations / Whatever you think about the merits of this idea, vote No. If 65 gets more votes than 67, the single-use bag ban is overturned, making the whole exercise academic.	No
66	Makes changes to appeals process for death penalty cases; supersedes Prop 62 if both bass / We support banning the death penalty – vote for 62.	No
67	Asks vote confirmation of single-use plastic bag ban approved by the Legislature in 2014 / Put on by plastics manufacturers to confuse voters into repealing the ban. Single-use plastic bags are an environmental abomination. Vote yes to reaffirm the ban.	Yes