Chris Daly has a blog

Via Adriel Hampton, I see that Chris Daly (the supervisor, not the lawyer) has a blog. I was initially put off by the site's similarity to the official city web pages, but Chris assures me that it is legit, and he has been successful in changing the rules to give Board members more control over their web sites, which should make them both more helpful for San Franciscans, and, as Chris proves, more interesting.

Chris makes an important point. The part of the budget process that gets the most press is the spending part, not the revenue part. Come the end of the budget process, the Chron will spend serious column inches detailing the potential tradeoffs between things like health care and groundskeeping, housing and education. Chris's point--and I think it's a good one--is that the Chron, the TV stations and the other corporate-driven media oranizations tend to slide over the question of raising revenue, rather than simply cutting spending.

It is not surprising that the SF Chronicle opposed progressive supes and labor on Prop L. It seems as if they oppose everything we do. But given their obsequious coverage of the Mayor in his first year, you would think that the Chronicle would have been more supportive of Prop K. In this case, their bottom line and pro-corporate agenda interrupted their otherwise constant fawning over the new Mayor, editorializing against the business tax days before the election.

The Chronicle (or rather the Hearst Corporation, their owners) is one of the biggest corporations in the city. Of course they are opposed to taxing corporate profits!

Since the Chron has a huge role in setting the agenda for what gets talked about in San Francisco, it's not surprising that some of the more obvious revenue sources (like reinstating corporate taxes) get short shrift in favor of raising Muni fees. Another example of this, and one that the Guardian should get full credit for covering, is the constant requests by big property owners in San Francisco to have the assessed value of their property lowered.

Now, anyone who has tried to buy a house in San Francisco knows that property here is somewhat on the expensive side. And, frankly, it's not getting any cheaper. So it is especially egregious that big corporations like Hearst or Transamerica feel that the city should not only lower the amount the have to pay in the future, but give back taxes they've already paid.

Chris is right to point out that the best progresive opportunities to influence the budget come at the beginning, not the end, of the process, and that we need to push now for the city to raise money from the groups who can afford it, not the ones who cannot.

Disclaimer: I have known Chris since long before he became the scourge of the Chronicle editorial pages, and have both donated money to and volunteered for his campaigns.