South San Francisco, CA September 29, 2022 by Vice Mayor Buenaflor Nicolas
Like you, we believe childcare is an essential service South San Francisco must invest in. However, while Measure DD sounds like a great investment for our children, it actually comes with unintended consequences that will put our kids at risk and hurt working families and our city.
Measure DD is unsafe. There are no requirements for childcare teachers to be licensed or adhere to health and safety guidelines. The measure is also silent on what programs are required to teach.
Measure DD won’t provide preschool for all. A recent economic report showed that there is a $10.7 million shortfall. Over time as inflation, minimum wage, and tuition costs increase, that number will only rise, and thus preschool seats will be less available.
Measure DD is the biggest tax in city history. $56 million will be dedicated to childcare for children ages 2.5 to 5 years old. That is almost half of the city’s current budget focused on one issue. Millions of dollars will not be invested in public safety and affordable housing.
Measure DD will hurt working families. New construction and union jobs will slow if Measure DD passes, making South San Francisco unattractive for new businesses.
Measure DD actually does hurt small businesses: 109 businesses will be affected by this tax. Many of those are small, minority-owned businesses that rent their space on a parcel that is larger than 25,000+ square feet. Most office leases are triple net leases, meaning tax increases can be passed to tenants. Many local businesses won’t be able to absorb this huge tax and will be forced to close.
Measure DD is permanent. No changes can be made to the measure if it passes, meaning if something is not working, we will have to wait until the next election for voters to decide.
South San Francisco already has a Childcare Master Plan that has gathered $11 million in which licensed childcare and adhering to safety guidelines are mandatory. It won’t affect union work, prevent new biotech companies from coming to our city, and won’t hurt our small local businesses. The Childcare Master plan was developed by elected officials, local educators, and local businesses. It can also be changed as the needs of South San Francisco change.
We urge you to vote no on Measure DD.
Vice Mayor Buenaflor Nicolas
Is this the same Vice Mayor Nicolas that, unanimously along with her colleagues, thought nothing about advancing Measure AA to the ballot when the study they commissioned reflected budget shortfalls of anywhere between $47 million and $85 million that would be borne by the resident taxpayers?
They want to do this “times eight.!” Kinda’ makes $10.7 million sound like “pocket change.”
Make no mistake, Measure DD is fiscally reckless but so is AA and T, but voters need to ask themselves why our city officials are more concerned about protecting businesses from taxation than protecting residents from taxation? We might not like the answer.
If I might also inquire, is this the same Vice Mayor Nicolas who reveled at a council meeting about the benefit of addressing the city’s RHNA obligations with the inclusion of 183 housing units at the recently approved life science campus across from See’s Candy? A little detail she left out is that along with those 183 housing units will be the creation of hundreds of jobs that will exacerbate and likely leave a net increase in our RHNA obligations.
As I perceive Ms. Nicolas declaration to be misleading, I requested an explanation from both her and her fellow council members over two weeks ago. To date, no one has responded and one might assume there are several reasons. The answer reveals the fact that those housing units will do absolutely nothing to address our RHNA numbers, the addition of hundreds of jobs will only increase our RHNA obligation or they are taking their usual tack of never, ever answering to their constituents.
That being the case, I caution our city officials to cease insulting the intelligence of the electorate and abandon misleading statements as the residents of SSF are paying attention and have tired of your running our city like a monarchy.
+1 SSF swamp. monarchy is a good one. I prefer to call it an oligarchy.
they love to spend other people’s money just like drunken Marxist’s !
especially the young (progressives) they probably ran up mommy and daddy’s
credit cards when they where kid’s .never had to put in an honest day’s work.
just like president Brandon. just take it from the sleeping masses. got to
hand it to them they know how to fool most of us. the ONLY thing they are good at.