Not for sale

SUP. MATT Gonzalez did a tremendous public service by refusing to allow the San Francisco 49ers to sell the naming rights to Candlestick Park. Think about it: What big corporation that has $1 million a year to spend on that sort of advertising does the city want to be associated with? Do we want to be stuck with another Enron Field? Or PG&E Park, or Mirant Pavilion? The Board of Supervisors was right to vote down the deal, and Gonzalez should push forward with his plan to put a measure on the November ballot banning all sales of the names of city facilities without prior voter approval.

Speaking of taxes, the business tax the supervisors tabled Aug. 5 was far too limited and too easily attacked as anti-small business. Sups. Gonzalez and Chris Daly are moving to place a hike in the real-estate transfer tax on sales of $1 million or more on the fall ballot, and that's a great idea. But the supes should also come back next year with a real new business-tax plan that applies a fair gross-receipts tax to all businesses (exempting those with sales of less than, say, $1 million a year). The money lost in last year's tax settlement has to be replaced.