SF Appeal reports that Twitter wanted an eight year tax break to stay in San Francisco and not move to Brisbane, California, instead of the six years that the city agreed to provide.

Chris Roberts reports:

Twitter, whose world headquarters are on Folsom Street, asked for an eight-year break from paying any payroll tax at all, according to Supervisor Jane Kim, who helped broker the "compromise" deal introduced Tuesday.

Under the compromise, Twitter would pay the same payroll tax bill it paid in 2010, when it had an estimated 350 employees, until 2017 or beyond, by which point it could have 3,000 employees, according to the Mayor's Office.

"We understand technology companies' desire to grow, but it was hard for me for [city revenue] to take a hit like that," Kim told The Appeal. "We wanted something that's going to bring jobs to Mid-Market, not just, 'You can move to Mid-Market and pay no tax.'"

Twitter is a company that loves to tout its commitment to social responsibility but clearly this is just public relations chatter. When it comes to paying its local taxes, which goes to support San Francisco local community services and infrastructure, it wants to take away community resources.

What type of social responsibility is this?

Supervisor John Avalos, thus far the most vocal critic of the tax breaks, said there's still a "really good" chance Twitter will move its headquarters to Brisbane even if the breaks are brokered. "Twitter has to decide if they're going to accept it or not," he said. And thus far, the social media and communications company has been entirely silent.

Twitter should just #shut-the-f*ck-up about social responsibility and piss off to Brisbane. Good luck recruiting staff. Engineers have plenty of other choices.

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Corporate Blackmail? - San Francisco Offers Tax Break To Twitter - SVW

Proposed Tax Cuts For Twitter Raise Questions Of "Corporate Blackmail," Worker Safety : News: SFAppeal

Twitter Touts "Social Responsibility" But Threatens To Leave SF Over Local Taxes - SVW

Editorial: No tax breaks for Twitter | San Francisco Bay Guardian