fact-checking

By Bernice Yeung, Newsdesk.org/The Public Press

Although development is a perennially hot-button topic in San Francisco due to concerns about gentrification, Proposition D, which would facilitate Pier 70 revitalization, is a seemingly controversy-free measure that has garnered wide support from neighborhood groups, environmentalists, city officials and developers.

By Matthew Hirsch, Newsdesk.org/The Public Press

	View our annotated Flickr collection to see how pro-Propositon A activists are spinning the issue in campaign fliers.

The proponents of Proposition A want voters to believe that the Nov. 4 election is a matter of life or death for San Francisco's main public hospital.

The measure has an enormous list of supporters, including elected officials, newspapers, community groups, and the local Democratic, Republican and Green parties. The campaign ads also feature long endorsement lists and descriptions of health care specialists who provide essential medical services.

However, these ads misrepresent some of the facts. And they appeal to the lowest common denominator in politics -- quality health care, something everybody supports -- without taking on more difficult questions raised by the campaign.

Proposition L, which would guarantee funding to San Francisco's new Community Justice Center, is supposedly an initiative that would "stop efforts to play politics with community justice," according to advertising paid for by proponents.

However, given the heated debate among city officials -- rooted in a longstanding feud between Supervisor Chris Daly and Mayor Gavin Newsom -- that surrounds the creation of the court, the measure appears to serve a political purpose itself.

Propositions N and Q, which would increase and modify San Francisco's property transfer and payroll expense taxes, were the product of intense negotiations between different business groups. Not surprisingly, the winners and losers in those negotiations define the pro and con election advertisements. The laws are simple enough: N would increase the property transfer tax from 0.75 to 1.5 percent on properties worth over $5 million, while Q ensures that partners in law firms have to pay payroll taxes. It also raises the ceiling for payroll tax exemption to $250,000. The city controller states in the voter handbook that the propositions would raise almost $40 million for the city's general fund, but how it does that, and who stands to gain or lose, is not so clearcut.