{"id":393928,"date":"2026-07-10T21:29:34","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T21:29:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/393928\/"},"modified":"2026-07-10T21:29:34","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T21:29:34","slug":"san-francisco-mayor-daniel-lurie-blocks-vacant-grocery-store-tax-proposal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/393928\/","title":{"rendered":"San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie Blocks Vacant Grocery Store Tax Proposal"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Affordable Groceries Act aimed to increase access to grocery stores and pharmacy chains by taxing empty storefronts and establishing a fund to subsidize groceries.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

A view down an aisle at a Safeway supermarket in Walnut Creek, California, on July 22, 2025. 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 \u201clobbying intensely\u201d against the proposal at City Hall for weeks.\u00a0\u00a0(Smith Collection\/Gado via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

\u201cThey don\u2019t like taxes on corporations. It\u2019s just philosophical. But the unprecedented part is that yesterday, I got a call that they are going to actively oppose this,\u201d Mahmood said of the Lurie administration. \u201cThe only conclusion I can draw is this comes from pressure that Amazon built.\u201d<\/p>\n

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 \u201clobbying intensely\u201d against the proposal at City Hall for weeks.<\/p>\n

According to Mahmood, Amazon lobbyists requested an exemption to the legislation for the company\u2019s shuttered Whole Foods storefront on Market Street. Mahmood declined the request.<\/p>\n

\"\"Supervisor Bilal Mahmood speaks during a rally for survivors of sexual assault and harassment at San Francisco City Hall in San Francisco on July 7, 2026. (Gina Castro for KQED)<\/p>\n

\u201cThey said, if you do this, we will campaign against it,\u201d Mahmood told KQED. \u201cThe explicit words from their lobbyists were, we just spent $250,000 against Prop D. We could probably do the same here again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

Proposition D, known as the Overpaid CEO Tax<\/a>, appeared on the June primary ballot and aimed to tax major corporations to fill the city\u2019s budget gaps. Opponents, including moderate political pressure groups and tech leaders, spent millions of dollars to defeat it. Lurie also urged a \u201cno\u201d vote. It ultimately failed to pass.<\/p>\n

The closure of grocery stores and pharmacies has factored into affordability challenges<\/a> in the city.<\/p>\n

Nearly a third of San Franciscans living below the poverty line are food insecure, according to a 2024 report by the city\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

But Lurie has said Mahmood\u2019s plan won\u2019t help fill the city\u2019s many empty grocery stores.<\/p>\n

\u201cMayor Lurie is working to bring grocery stories to San Francisco\u2019s communities. More taxes won\u2019t achieve that,\u201d said Charles Lukvak, the mayor\u2019s spokesperson. \u201cWe support the Affordable Grocery Fund and will continue working with Supervisor Mahmood and the entire Board to bring more grocery stores to the city.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\"\"San Francisco Supervisor Rafael Mandelman speaks at a press event in front of San Francisco City Hall on Oct. 29, 2025. (Martin do Nascimento\/KQED)<\/p>\n

\u201cBudget Chair Connie Chan agrees with Supervisor Mahmood\u2019s intent for this measure \u2014 we need more neighborhood grocery stores \u2014 but she also understands that much work needs to be done to this measure to deliver that intent,\u201d said Robyn Burke, Chan\u2019s spokesperson. \u201cSupervisor Mahmood has amendments he wants to make to his legislation that he is still working on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mahmood said he had support from Supervisors Chyanne Chen, Danny Sauter, Stephen Sherrill and Myrna Melgar for the proposal.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen a proposal to make groceries more affordable gets pulled from the agenda before the public even gets to weigh in, that\u2019s a problem no matter who asked for it,\u201d Mahmood said. \u201cSan Franciscans deserve an up-or-down vote, in public, from their elected leaders.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Affordable Groceries Act aimed to increase access to grocery stores and pharmacy chains by taxing empty storefronts…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":393929,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[101,103,102,104,106,105],"class_list":["post-393928","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393928","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=393928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393928\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/393929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=393928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=393928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=393928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}