Taxpayers are "spared" when a new tax doesn't get added on top because a project got it's funding elsewhere.
I can't speak for the city level taxes in sf because I don't pay those, but I know that in California sometimes taxes can expire and the voters don't renew them.
This is San Francisco. The only thing I ever hear from politicians is an additional tax, on top of all the other taxes.
But prove me wrong: when in the last 10 years did San Francisco "spared" or lowered taxes?
San Francisco has a budget of $14 billion dollars.
Paris, France: €4.4 billion euro.
The issue is not lack of money but mind boggling, ineffective, corrupt spending of the money.