A San Mateo County Supervisor is urging Gov. Gavin Newsom to implement a temporary tax on some of the largest Silicon Valley tech companies that have seen big profits during the pandemic.
The revenue from the proposed âPandemic Tech Taxâ would go to state and local governments that are facing unprecedented deficits and potentially distributed to Californians as stimulus payments, according to District 5 Supervisor David Canepa who authored a letter to Newsom pressing him to take on this issue.
This comes as a new report from the stateâs Labor Department released Thursday found that nearly 5 million people have filed for unemployment insurance since March.
Canepa said tech companies that profit off of users’ personal data should âdo moreâ to help Californians hurt by the pandemic.
â[Amazon CEO] Jeff Bezos could write a check to the state of California for 54 billion dollars and he could erase California’s deficit. And still have through his net worth one hundred billion dollars,â he said.
The governorâs proposed budget suggested cuts totaling $54.3 billion dollars across programs ranging from public education to healthcare.
San Mateo County, which is home to Facebook and Youtube, faced an unprecedented housing crisis before the shelter-in-place orders took effect in mid-March.
According to county officials, YouTube donated $50,000 dollars to the countyâs San Mateo Strong fund aimed at providing emergency relief to residents and local businesses.
But Canepa said thatâs not enough, and expects companies like Google and Netflix â which have reported higher earnings during the pandemic â to contribute more.
Businesses that have suffered financially like Uber and AirBnb would be exempt.
âWe don’t want to penalize people for being successful, but these companies can do a lot more in this pandemic and they’re profiting off this pandemic,â said Canepa.
â Shannon Lin (@Linshannonlin)
Copyright 2020 KQED