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 “Pandemic Tech Tax” would go to state and local governments that are facing unprecedented deficits and potentially distributed to Californians as stimulus payments, according to San Mateo County 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 state’s 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 “do more” to help Californians hurt by the pandemic.
“[Amazon CEO] Jeff Bezos could write a check to the state of California for $54 billion and he could erase California's deficit — and still have through his net worth $100 hundred billion,” Canepa said.