Twitter Tax Break Faces Surprise Challenge from Public Union

[Kadie]

Twitter Tax Break Faces Surprise Challenge from Public Union
SEIU Local 1021 calls measure a "taxpayer handout," threatens referendum

By GERRY SHIH on March 18, 2011 - 9:35 p.m. PDT

A tax break designed to keep Twitter in San Francisco that earlier this week appeared all but guaranteed to pass is now meeting with opposition from San Francisco's largest public-employee union.

“It’s a taxpayer handout to a $10 billion company at a time we’re cutting basic city services,” Roxanne Sanchez, the president of Service Employees International Union Local 1021, said Thursday.

The move by one of the city’s most powerful and well-funded organizations, with 17,000 members, raised the possibility of a protracted fight over a measure that proponents — including the mayor — say is desperately needed to spur economic growth in the distressed mid-Market and Tenderloin neighborhoods. The measure would exempt companies located in those areas from paying payroll taxes on new hires for six years. It was tailored for Twitter, which has outgrown its South of Market offices and is looking to move.

Just this week, the Internet company told city officials that it had reached a tentative lease agreement with the landlord of 1355 Market St. pending the Board of Supervisors' approval of the tax break. Several supervisors, including the legislation’s opponents, acknowledged that the measure had enough support to pass the full board. The board’s budget and finance committee will first vote on it next Wednesday.

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http://www.baycitizen.org/politics/story/twitter-tax-break-surprise-challenge/