> Lol, what? San Francisco taxes revenue of businesses that are there?… This is just....staggeringly stupid. It just penalizes low margin businesses, for no reason. How can anyone possibly think this is a good idea?

I don’t think anybody thinks that either the gross receipts tax (with different rates depending on industry) or the payroll tax (which included stock exercise in payroll) were good ideas. They are inferior alternatives to property taxes (which are capped and distorted by Proposition 13) and income taxes (which RTC 17041.5 prohibits local governments from raising).