Jake McGoldrick: Renewable Energy at Front

I recently introduced legislation that will promote the development and establishment of renewable energy businesses in San Francisco through a payroll tax exclusion. No other municipality has done this before. The legislation positions San Francisco at the front end of the clean technology industry by lowering the cost of doing businesses for renewable energy companies. 

The legislation applies to existing and new renewable energy businesses that employ a staff of 10 or more. Qualified businesses include those that develop renewable energy sources, such as electrical energy produced by wind, solar, hydropower, wave energy and biofuels, as well as businesses that produce electrical energy savings.

San Francisco has the potential to be the hub of renewable energy sources. Our residents and businesses created this potential when they voted to pass a $100 million solar bond ballot initiative.  We have a very environmentally conscious population. More than 63 percent of San Francisco residents recycle their garbage and more hybrid cars are bought in the local Toyota dealership than in any other Toyota dealership in the country.   

Our local interest and initiatives to promote environmentally conscious programs, combined with our abundant supply of renewable energy sources - strong tides, high winds, constant waves and frequent sunshine, make the City ideal for the growth of a renewable energy industry. Tidal and wave generation companies want to harness the more than 400 million gallons of water moving through the Golden Gate each day. 

We also have an amazing source of wealth in our people. The region has a highly educated workforce and easy access to academic research.    

If we bring renewable energy companies to San Francisco, we can develop more quality jobs that take into consideration the wide range of skills that San Francisco residents have to offer.  Not only will the renewable energy industry stimulate the local economy through job growth, it will also increase the availability of renewable energy products to the local, national and international markets. Renewable energy offers people protection against high priced and polluting fossil-fuel-based energy sources, a primary source of worldwide devastation.   

We also stand to benefit when money is kept in the City. There are a number of city programs that will include the implementation of renewable energy. For example, Community Choice Aggregation will give energy users the option to switch to renewable energy power suppliers that are made available through the city government.   

States like Oregon, New York and North Carolina have implemented successful business credit programs for clean technology businesses. California itself has a number of clean technology programs, including the most aggressive solar subsidy in the nation. We can follow in these footsteps by creating a number of initiatives to attract environmentally and socially responsible businesses to San Francisco. The payroll tax credit is just the beginning.

Muni Budget
Good Muni news. Monthly Fast Passes ($45) will not increase and senior, youth and disabled discount Fast Passes ($10) will almost certainly not go up either. Owl (night) service will not be reduced.

Thanks to a lot of good luck (state and local revenue sources are up) and a lot of good-faith deliberations among Muni officials, commissioners and supervisors (yes, I'm one of them), many of this year's Muni budget problems are getting resolved.

Part of Muni's originally proposed revenue package of solutions included very significant increases to neighborhood parking meter fines ($35 to $50) and doubling neighborhood meter rates ($1 to $2 per hour). I felt that such increases would be very harmful to the city's small businesses, which are already struggling to survive against shopping centers.

Carefully trying to balance the needs of Muni riders with the need to preserve our 200 neighborhood shopping districts, I agreed to a compromise budget that will increase fines $5, rather than $15, and meters 50 cents, instead of $1. If we clobber consumers with more fines and meter increases, they will abandon our "mom and pop" businesses in droves.

In the meantime, parking fines and meter rates will rise in the more congested areas downtown. They are, in contrast to our neighborhoods, richly served by public transit. The reason for higher rates and fines downtown is to use "value pricing" in the heavily traversed areas of the city that have limited street circulation space. This creates a vital "congestion management" tool.

Obviously, we want to encourage people to use their cars less and use more public transit, bike or carpool when going into high density areas. This is a common practice in the U.S. and cities all over the world. In fact, on June 3, the mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, will be honored in San Francisco at the U.N. World Environment Day for his groundbreaking congestion management program. This has reduced cars in central London by 30 percent and increased ridership by 20 percent in three years.

Jake McGoldrick is a San Francisco supervisor representing District 1.