San Francisco billionaires tax fails as voters reject Prop. D

San Francisco voters turned back Prop. D, 111,038 to 95,973, closing off a new tax path that city officials said could have brought in $250 million to $300 million a year for the General Fund. The measure needed only a simple majority on the June 2, 2026 ballot, but the no vote reached 53.64 percent as the city continued counting ballots after a turnout of 41.79 percent.

Prop. D would have overhauled San Francisco’s existing Top Executive Pay Tax by comparing a company’s top executive with all employees companywide, not just workers based in San Francisco. The ballot text said the new rates would begin in 2027. The measure was paired against Prop. C, a competing business-tax relief proposal that also failed, and officials had said only the measure with more votes would have taken effect if both had passed.

The result read as a post-pandemic mood check on how San Franciscans want City Hall to balance revenue, affordability and economic risk. Mayor Daniel Lurie, Garry Tan, the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce and both major parties in the city opposed the tax hike, while labor groups pushed it as a way to close the deficit and tap large corporations more aggressively. The election also became a stand-in for the city’s bigger argument over AI-era wealth, with opponents warning the tax could push employers out and raise consumer costs.

Prop. D’s defeat matters now because the city still faces a serious General Fund squeeze. In the mayor’s FY 2026-27 and FY 2027-28 budget framework, San Francisco projected a $936 million General Fund deficit and directed departments to look for $400 million in ongoing spending cuts. Voters approved Proposition M in November 2024, which reduced the Overpaid Executive Gross Receipts Tax; Prop. D would have reversed part of that rollback, but the city will now have to close the gap without that revenue stream.