Episode 9: How Would Richie Give Back to San Francisco?

On this episode, Richie Greenberg details the outrageous spending by San Francisco City Hall, and how it's time for residents, small business owners and tourists receive restitution. And of course, how to pay for it.

Transcript

WWRGDAM Podcast

Episode 9

Giving Back to the Community

Welcome everyone to another episode of WWRGDAM, its been a great journey so far, over these past months since launching, this podcast has been picked up by Spotify and by Apple Podcasts, so spread he word, tell friends, loved ones and neighbors, thank you.

Lets talk about San Francisco. About the money taxpayers pay in to city hall, and what we get in return, as residents, small business owners, and lets talk about tourists. And ultimately, what has city hall, including mayor London Breed, done for us? How have they appreciated us, respected us, or is this just a pipedream?

Standard operating procedure: City Hall officials seek to maximize the monies they can extract from us taxpayers: Business taxes, property taxes, sales taxes, special assessments, permits, filing fees, parking tickets etcetera. The more money city hall needs to operate, the more they demand. There are several elected officials, especially on the Board of Supervisors who openly preach to “tax the rich”, to squeeze every bit possible from San Franciscans, meaning: The don’t respect any of us, and instead they seem to see us purely the giver of allowance to them, like a petulant, crybaby child. Many preach it is us, the hardworking law-abiding taxpayers who must subsidize every manner of living of the other city residents who not only don’t work, but are instead the addicts, the individuals living on the streets which other city programs are funding with monthly cash handouts to purchase drugs. And the nonprofits which are under contract with the city to provide these drug-related services. And the nonprofit CEOs and key employees being compensated with $200k, $300k salaries, and these nonprofits have been actually adding to the problems on the streets, as we have come to know. This is just one example of the abuse we citizens have been putting up with.

City Hall is in an abusive, financial relationship, with us. They demand more and more, more taxes and assessment fees, the mayor proposes bonds, which are loans, and she creates the annual operating budget also creeping upwards, going higher and higher, currently at $14.6 Billion dollars. In a previous episode, I discussed this insane budget amount and I myself proposed cutting it back by $4.5 Billion dollars over the course of three years. Feel free to go to Episode 3 for a refresher.

City Hall demands more, and we see less, much less - and much less effective. No matter how much cash is thrown at the most pressing issues, we see no improvement and lately we see issues remain uncontrolled. Drug dealers and addicts in the Tenderloin and SoMa neighborhoods, for example. We see it, San Franciscans see it, the media sees it, the nation sees it, yet today, mayor London Breed denies there is a problem, because it’s an election year.

While city hall seeks to grab as much tax money, fees and fines from taxpayers, we San Francisco residents are getting robbed, our homes and businesses burglarized, our cars windows smashes and personal property grabbed,  our mom and pop shops are looted, inventory taken, and equipment like cash registers, computers stolen. And our visitors, tourists on vacation, often with family, leave the city and return home, distraught, when their rental car has been broken into and every possession stolen. Police and sheriffs Department overwhelmed, still reeling from being defunded in 2020 by mayor London Breed. Businesses are fleeing, the retail sector of our city is in shambles and London Breed wasn’t even more money.

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We need to cut this spending off, right now. We as taxpayers must stop this unaccountable waste of our money by City Hall, and as mayor, I would tackle this on Day 1.

We need to give back to the taxpayers, the hard working law abiding residents of San Francisco.

How do I propose to do this? 

By giving back to the Community, along with cutting off the uncontrolled spending. It’s a two-pronged approach, with results for both cleaning up the streets and rewarding and relief for you, the city’s citizens, for all that had to be put up with since 2020 covid lockdowns, the irresponsible spending of current mayor London Breed and the outrageous policies of now ousted and recalled DA Chesa Boudin.

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As mayor, I will have three categories of rewards, givebacks, relief, call them restitution:

1.    Relief to taxpayers, residents

2.    Relief to small business owners

3.    Relief to Tourists

One. Relief for taxpayers between 2020 to 2023, car broken into? Windows smashed? You will get $100.

Breaking of your property tax bill 10%.

Property tax trickle down to renters through the landlords.

Suspend gas, tax and other taxes

Two. For business owners between 2020 to 2023

Rear window smashed? You will get up to $5000.

No business registration fees for two years, then a gradual return to 100% year after year first year 20% second year 50% third year 75% of registration fees.

Also an exemption from business taxes for two years first 25% then 50%

Was your inventory stolen or your registers your cash registers and equipment and other office supplies or store supplies stolen? You will be reimbursed up to $50,000 for small business and reimbursed up to 200,000 for businesses that suffered from major retail luting, above the insurance reimbursement or deductible will be paid, depending on your situation Graffiti did your business get fine by the city for graffiti removal? Fines will be cleared, any money is paid will be returned refunded to you, the city going forward will be responsible for painting over graffiti.

Number three for tourists

Was your car window smashed we will give you $100. You must have a police report. Rear personal possessions stolen we will pay the deductible. We will also give you a voucher for $250 to spend at San Francisco businesses and restaurants as a we are sorry.

San Franciscans need, deserve, relief we deserve respect we must be shown we are valued for being residence for sticking through these disastrous times.

Along with restitution, there must be a concerted effort, a message, to existing City Hall officials, those and those appoint and candidates for Office: the times of free-for-all spending and uncontrolled and irresponsible are over. Reckless spending of money from City Hall coffers is over. Screwing over taxpayers and then demanding more money like petulant children, demanding, and allowance the time is over. Candidates for office and current elected officials that preach to eat the rich, tax the rich, you are a shameful disgraceful embarrassment. We in San Francisco reject these trashy, so-called progressives, and there is no place in San Francisco for this harebrained nonsense.

How will we pay for these handouts? How will we pay for the restitution, the reimbursement the vouchers, when City Hall and mayor breed claims that we have a huge deficit that is growing? The answer is easy by all the cuts that I would make as mayor to the unaccountable, uncontrolled spending by nonprofits we will transfer money from the NGO nonprofit that have been recklessly spending. We will cancel the contracts which is going to result in hundreds of millions if not in the billion dollars or more savings this is where the money will go this is where the money will come from.