Parcel taxes are a downtown scam.
That’s how San Francisco resident Richard Peterson summed up his frustration with Mayor Daniel Lurie’s latest plan to address the San Francisco Municipal Railway, a.k.a. MUNI’s $320 million deficit: a new citywide parcel tax, which will appear on the November 2026 ballot.
While the Mayor maintains the measure is necessary to preserve transit service and avoid major cuts, critics say it would unfairly burden homeowners and do little to restore public trust in the city’s handling of transit funding.