Friday, January 30, San Francisco healthcare workers turned in over 21,000 signatures from SF voters—over twice the number required—to the Department of Elections to qualify the Overpaid CEO Act for the June ballot.

The Overpaid CEO Act would place a small surcharge on large corporations with over 1000 employees and more than $1,000,000,000 in revenue whose top executives earn more than 100 times the median salary of their workers. These same corporations are reaping huge tax breaks from Trump’s Big Ugly Bill—HR 1—and this tax would take back only a tiny fraction of that to protect vital public services that will otherwise be decimated by the Medicaid cuts in HR 1.

As a result in part to federal funding cuts, San Francisco is facing a $936 million budget deficit over the next two years alone, placing essential services such as San Francisco General Hospital and other public health services, housing, homelessness response, and neighborhood safety programs on the chopping block.

Revenues will help preserve critical city services: healthcare workers, first responders, public hospitals, housing, in-home support services (IHSS), long-term care (LTC) programs, and other essential services that keep our neighborhoods safe and healthy. Only a handful of the largest corporations in San Francisco would be affected. Small businesses, homeowners, renters, and working families would not.

“It’s time for large corporations to pay their fair share,” said SEIU 1021 SF General Hospital RN Chapter President Katie Aschero as she and her colleagues hauled the heavy boxes of petitions into City Hall Friday.

Eight of the 11 members of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors have now endorsed the Overpaid CEO Act: Supervisor Connie Chan (District 1), Supervisor Danny Sauter (District 3), Supervisor Alan Wong (District 4), Supervisor Bilal Mahmood (District 5), Supervisor Myrna Melgar (District 7), Supervisor Jackie Fielder (District 9), Supervisor Shamann Walton (District 10), and Supervisor Chyanne Chen (District 11).

“As federal cuts threaten safety-net hospitals like SF General, our health care system, and our most vulnerable neighbors, these Supervisors are standing up for San Francisco by saying YES to the Overpaid CEO Act,” said Brittany Hewett, a registered nurse at SF General Hospital.

“The Overpaid CEO Act creates a real pathway to protect the vital services San Franciscans rely on while advancing the shared vision we and our elected leaders have for the city we all deserve: one that puts people first, invests in community well-being, and refuses to prioritize excessive executive pay and corporate greed over lives, health care, and essential services.”