Sustainable Economic Growth

Scott is very focused on improving San Francisco’s economic engine. If San Francisco doesn’t produce jobs and other economic opportunities, it will be impossible to move forward on the many priorities that we have as a city. Jobs are the glue that binds everything else together.

Small business: Small businesses are the backbone of our economy and provide the bulk of the jobs in San Francisco. From unique neighborhood retailers, restaurants, and bars to light industrial businesses like printers and auto repair shops to startup biotech and technology firms, small businesses are our economic engine. We are a creative and entrepreneurial city, and our city government needs to make sure that it is as easy as possible for people to start small businesses and keep them running. For example, the City should make it easier for local small businesses to receive City procurement contracts and should streamline the permit process for starting and expanding small businesses. Scott supports the Small Business Assistance Center, which provides case managers to small business owners to help them get started, navigate the city bureaucracy, and get access to resources like low-interest loans. Scott also supports City funding of nonprofits that help small businesses, such as the LGBT Community Center’s Economic Development Program, which among other things, works to attract and grow small businesses. In addition, Scott believes that the city needs to take a more collaborative approach toward small business when it comes to issues like public safety, parking, and regulation. Small business should always have a seat at the table in these discussions.

Business attraction and more jobs downtown: Our city leaders should be cheerleaders for San Francisco. We need to identify businesses that can start or relocate here and then make sure that we are doing what it takes to allow those businesses to thrive here. We also need to ensure that downtown San Francisco has enough office capacity to accommodate sustainable job growth. Job growth downtown is critical to our economic growth and also to environmentally sustainable regional growth, since downtown San Francisco is one of the few places in the region with strong enough access to public transportation to allow environmentally friendly growth.

Fixing the budget process: San Francisco’s budget process must be reformed. We need to focus less on bickering and short-term fixes and more on long term structural solutions, including devoting one-time revenue to one-time capital projects (instead of using temporary revenue spikes to start new programs for which we will run out of funding in a year or two) and reforming our process for creating voter-mandated set asides. Scott will work to change the way we budget as a city so that when we face the next economic downturn, we don’t exacerbate the budget deficit with self-inflicted wounds.