San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie Blocks Vacant Grocery Store Tax Proposal

“They don’t like taxes on corporations. It’s just philosophical. But the unprecedented part is that yesterday, I got a call that they are going to actively oppose this,” Mahmood said of the Lurie administration. “The only conclusion I can draw is this comes from pressure that Amazon built.”

Mahmood, who represents the Tenderloin, claims that Lurie stepped in to swat down the grocery store tax proposal because Amazon, which owns Whole Foods Market, had been “lobbying intensely” against the proposal at City Hall for weeks.

According to Mahmood, Amazon lobbyists requested an exemption to the legislation for the company’s shuttered Whole Foods storefront on Market Street. Mahmood declined the request.

“They said, if you do this, we will campaign against it,” Mahmood told KQED. “The explicit words from their lobbyists were, we just spent $250,000 against Prop. D. We could probably do the same here again.”

Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Proposition D, known as the Overpaid CEO Tax, appeared on the June primary ballot and aimed to tax major corporations to fill the city’s budget gaps. Opponents, including moderate political pressure groups and tech leaders, spent millions of dollars to defeat it. Lurie also urged a “no” vote. It ultimately failed to pass.

The closure of grocery stores and pharmacies has factored into affordability challenges in the city.

Nearly a third of San Franciscans living below the poverty line are food insecure, according to a 2024 report by the city’s Food Security Task Force, and nearly 110,000 residents utilize CalFresh, a food benefits program that the Trump administration has made qualifying for more difficult.

But Lurie has said Mahmood’s plan won’t help fill the city’s many empty grocery stores.

“Mayor Lurie is working to bring grocery stores to San Francisco’s communities. More taxes won’t achieve that,” said Charles Lutvak, the mayor’s spokesperson. “We support the Affordable Grocery Fund and will continue working with Supervisor Mahmood and the entire Board to bring more grocery stores to the city.”

Taxes collected on the vacant storefront proposal could have gone toward a new affordable grocery fund, which would also accept private donations if both measures passed. The fund would be intended for a variety of different affordability programs focused on healthy food.

Mahmood said Lurie urged Supervisor Connie Chan to cut the item from the upcoming Budget and Finance Committee agenda, striking its chances of going on the ballot this November.

A spokesperson for Chan said she supports the intent of the legislation but that it required more work and was not ready to go before the board or voters.

“Budget Chair Connie Chan agrees with Supervisor Mahmood’s intent for this measure — we need more neighborhood grocery stores — but she also understands that much work needs to be done to this measure to deliver that intent,” said Robyn Burke, Chan’s spokesperson. “Supervisor Mahmood has amendments he wants to make to his legislation that he is still working on.”

Mahmood said he had support from Supervisors Chyanne Chen, Danny Sauter, Stephen Sherrill and Myrna Melgar for the proposal.

He has a final Hail Mary he is holding out for that could allow the proposal to move forward after a motion next Tuesday, if Board President Rafael Mandelman steps in to initiate a vote. Mandelman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“When a proposal to make groceries more affordable gets pulled from the agenda before the public even gets to weigh in, that’s a problem no matter who asked for it,” Mahmood said. “San Franciscans deserve an up-or-down vote, in public, from their elected leaders.”