San Francisco Mayor-Elect Daniel Lurie Will Only Take A $1 Salary

San Francisco Mayor-elect Daniel Lurie announced on Monday that his salary as Mayor will be $1 instead of Mayor London Breed’s current salary of $383,760.

His salary announcement comes at the heels of what was an underdog comeback in the Mayoral race. Polls throughout most of 2024 pointed to a close race between former Mayor Mark Farrell and Breed. In the first poll released in February, Farrell was up by two points with 20% against Breed’s 18%, followed by Lurie with 16% and Supervisor Ahsha Safai with 8%. However, the addition of San Francisco Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin entering the race in April shook things up. Despite sinking in popularity polls, the controversial Peskin allowed Breed to move up in the next Mayoral polls.

It then continued to be a huge back and forth between Farrell and Breed. Breed had a narrow lead in May polling, with Farrell retaking the lead in June, only for Breed to come back in July and August. Polls in September showed Farrell moving back up, but thanks to a late election push of new homeless initiatives and crackdowns on encampments, Breed was out to a narrow 51% lead by late September.

However, October brought on a late surge by Lurie. Pouring $8 million into his campaign, Lurie outspent the other candidates in the past month. While initially making waves over issues like public safety and homelessness, Lurie has focused on the economy and small businesses as of late, as well as going directly after both Breed and Farrell by going after the city budget and city spending. And with those two having been so focused on each other for most of the year so far, Lurie came out strong. In a poll in early October, Lurie managed to defeat Breed in the final vote in the ranked choice system, 53% to 47%. By late October it had grown to 56%-44%.

Lurie’s salary

This led to the election this month, with Lurie leading in every round of ranked-choice voting and a final vote of Lurie beating Breed 55.3% to 44.7%, or 174,478 votes to 140,956 votes. In the weeks that followed, Lurie continued to clarify what he wanted to do as Mayor, including continuing to fight poverty in the city and go after the city’s debt issues. He also played up his time from the non-profit, anti-poverty group Tipping Point. As Lurie is worth around $33 million and is the heir to the Levi Strauss fortune, Lurie opted to take things a step further and forgo his Mayoral salary on Monday, effectively making his salary $1 instead of Breed’s $383,760.

“I have spent my life fighting poverty and working to serve this community, and that commitment will continue when I take office,” said Lurie in a statement on Monday. “As part of that commitment to service, and because I have the means to forgo compensation, I’ve made the personal decision not to take a salary.”

Lurie spokesman Max Szabo added that while the city charter will have him take the mayoral salary legally, Lurie will donate all but $1 back to the city.

Lurie isn’t the first millionaire lawmaker to take on no salary while serving office. In recent history, Michael Bloomberg took a $1 salary as Mayor of New York City, with former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT) doing the same when they were Governors of California and Michigan respectively. However, Lurie’s decision is in stark contrast to Breed who took on such a high salary despite the city’s finances worsening.

“So, over 4 years, that saves the city $1.5 million,” explained political advisor Sharon Lee to the Globe on Tuesday. “For the next two fiscal years, San Francisco is looking at nearly $800 million in debt. It’s only a drop in the bucket, if that, in saved money. But it’s a start, and something Breed never did. She didn’t even take a reduced salary.

“It’s more of a gesture, but as Lurie says, he also hopes that it is a taste of things to come soon too. We shouldn’t put a lot of investment into one action, but for a city that has made so many missteps in the past few decades, it’s good to see the new Mayor beginning with a positive step, even though it is pretty small overall.”

Lurie will be sworn into office next month.