San Francisco ended its travel ban to conservative states. Could others be next? – By D. Hunter Schwarz (Deseret News) / May 26, 2023
State and local governments instituted travel bans to pressure states on policy, but a report out of San Francisco tells the financial costs
After nearly seven years, San Francisco’s ban on city-funded travel to conservative states has been rescinded. The reason? The city’s board of supervisors voted to ax the policy after a report found it was potentially costing the city money and contracts and wasn’t working as intended.
San Francisco’s policy, named Chapter 12X, was passed in 2016 and was meant to pressure states to not pass laws that San Francisco lawmakers considered anti-LGBTQ. Chapter 12X initially banned contracts and city-funded travel to four states, but since then, the list of banned states has grown to include states with other policies they found objectionable related to abortion and restrictive voting laws. Missouri and Utah were the latest to be added to the city’s list, which as of last September included 30 states, or over half the U.S.
“I’m not sure to what extent people really ever thought this was going to have much of an impact on the policies of other states, but it was sort of making a statement,” said Alan Auerbach, director of the Robert D. Burch Center for Tax Policy and Public Finance at the University of California, Berkeley.
CONTINUE > https://www.deseret.com/2023/5/26/23724338/san-francisco-ended-its-travel-ban-conservative-states
