“Today on Your Call: How Do Community Benefit Agreements Work?”

KALW, January 21, 2014

On today’s Your Call, we’ll have a conversation about a 2011 pact between the city of San Francisco and high tech companies, which receive millions of dollars in payroll tax breaks in exchange for setting up shop in the city. San Francisco requires tech companies to give back to the community to receive a six-year break from city payroll taxes. Who is benefiting from these agreements? Do you have something like this in your area? Join the conversation and call-in with your questions on the next Your Call, with Rose Aguilar and you.

Listen here.

Guests:

Jasper Rubin, associate professor of Urban Studies and Planning at San Francisco State University.

Hatty Lee, community outreach coordinator with Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation

Peter Cohen, co-director of Council of Community Housing Organizations

Web Resources:

SF Examiner: Citizens advisory committee recommends rejection of five mid-Market community benefit agreements

SF Gate: S.F. Mid-Market tax-break program grows up

The Council of Community Housing Organizations (CCHO)

Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation

Matthew Raffol: Community Benefits Agreements in the Political Economy of Urban Development

SF Gate: Book tells how S.F. tide turns port into promenade

KQED: San Francisco Voters Conflicted About Tech Boom

KQED: New Questions About Benefit of Tax Breaks for S.F. Tech Firms