Bay Guardian Editor and Publisher Bruce B. Brugmann announced today that the paper will move to Brisbane next fall unless the city expands its payroll tax exemption to cover Potrero Hill.
The paper, which plans to expand its workforce “by at least a few people” over the next five years, can’t continue to pay the roughly $500 tax for each new employee, Brugmann said. Although he denied rumors of an initial public offering, he said discussions about a “complex, derivative-based stock swap” that could lead to multi-dollar payoffs to some employees were a factor in his decision.
“We’ve always believed that stock options are the basis for American’s economy,” Brugmann said. “And it makes no sense to tax the wealthy when we can barely afford to tax the poor.”
The Bay Guardian building could also be converted to market-rate condominiums as part of the deal.
The Guardian is the latest local business to demand relief from the city’s crushing payroll tax. In the wake of proposals to offer a tax holiday to Twitter, companies like Zynga – also in Potrero Hill – and Yelp are threatening to leave town unless they get a similar deal.
“With the money we save,” Brugmann said, “we can afford to buy Steve Jones a car and get him off that goddam freak-ass bicycle.”
Jennifer Matz, a City Hall staffer who works to get corporations tax breaks, said she normally would be willing to give away public money to just about any company in town. “But my boss doesn’t seem that upset about the Guardian leaving,” she explained.
Still, several supervisors immediately announced plans to expand the tax district to the area immediately surrounding the corner of Mississippi and 17th where the Guardian is located. “If my favorite newspaper left town, I don’t know what I’d do with myself,” noted Sup. Jane Kim.
April Fool’s! Kinda.