Vote NO on Prop A

PROP A: Earthquake Safety & Emergency Response (ESER) General Obligation Bond — up to $535 million

Fiscal Impact:

Authorizes $535M in new city debt that property owners will repay through tax increases for decades ($3.40 per $100K assessed value annually at first, then at a higher peak later in the repayment cycle). It also authorizes landlords to pass on 50% of the resulting property tax increase to tenants in covered (rent-controlled) units.

How it landed on the ballot: San Francisco agencies, primarily public safety departments, like Fire, Police, Emergency Management, identified capital needs, Mayor Lurie approved the request, and the Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to put it on the June ballot.

Bottom Line:

This important ESER bond needs to be pulled and rewritten with a sole focus on a fully built-out Emergency Firefighting Water System (EFWS) serving the western and southern neighborhoods of the city and seismic rebuilds for firehouses. The $200M (40%) allocated to MUNI for rebuilding the Potrero Bus Yard must be pulled out. Then it needs to be put back on the ballot in November. Otherwise, this is just another MUNI bond and should be sold as such.

WHY NO ON PROP A?

Since 2010, San Francisco voters have approved three prior Emergency Firefighting and Earthquake Safety general obligation bonds intended to strengthen San Francisco’s disaster readiness.

The first, the 2010 ESER Bond, authorized approximately $412 million. Its stated focus was seismic upgrades to fire stations, improvements to the Auxiliary Water Supply System (AWSS), and initial planning for an Emergency Firefighting Water System (EFWS) to expand water access beyond downtown. Funding primarily went toward fire station retrofits and enhancements to the existing high-pressure system serving the northeast quadrant of the city. Not one pipe was laid in the 60% of the unprotected parts of the city for EFWS.

The second, the 2014 ESER Bond, authorized about $400 million. Allocations included additional fire station seismic work, street cistern construction, and early-phase EFWS design. While planning and limited components moved forward, a citywide EFWS buildout was still not completed.

The third, the 2020 ESER Bond, authorized roughly $628.5 million. That measure included funding for fire station rebuilds, continued AWSS improvements, and further EFWS planning and segment work in the western neighborhoods. Despite repeated commitments across all three bonds, a fully realized, citywide EFWS network, particularly serving outer neighborhoods vulnerable to post-earthquake fires, has not been delivered at scale. So, to recap, since the first ESER authorization in 2010, no comprehensive, continuous EFWS pipeline network serving the west side has been completed, despite voters voting for that very line item.

This ESER bond measure totals approximately $535 million and continues the tradition of using an important infrastructure bond for post-earthquake readiness to fund projects other than the stated purpose of the bond; in this case, to help MUNI rebuild a bus yard. We will take a hard pass on this and hope it returns in a purer form on the November ballot. Those of us who live on the westside and in the southern parts of the city are counting on our government to build a functional EFWS. This should have happened in 2010, and while it’s not an emergency now, it never is until it is. Don’t be fooled again. Vote NO on this measure, and let’s demand its rewrite and reappearance in November.