PALO ALTO — Palo Alto leaders have till Friday to put a brand new enterprise tax poll measure after negotiations with enterprise leaders broke down throughout Monday’s metropolis council assembly days earlier than a county elections deadline.
For years the town has flirted with a tax on companies, however has backed off every time — as soon as in 2008 proper earlier than the financial recession, then in 2016 and once more in 2020 amid the coronavirus pandemic. To at the present time, Palo Alto stays the one main Bay Space metropolis with out a enterprise tax.
Throughout Monday’s council assembly metropolis leaders once more to carry a particular assembly Wednesday to hopefully negotiate with enterprise leaders who as of but haven't come to the desk and pledged to oppose the brand new tax.
Public notion and opposition are among the many greatest sticking factors on the proposed measure, however metropolis council members seem like typically settlement in regards to the enterprise tax. On Monday, the council added one other provision capping tax income at $1 million per enterprise as a result of stress from the Silicon Valley Management Group and the Palo Alto Chamber of Commerce.
The enterprise group isn’t eager on having the tax measure on the poll for concern of worsening the burden on native companies nonetheless recovering from the pandemic, and polling suggests it could be an in depth election.
Dan Kostenbauder, Vice President of Tax Coverage for the Silicon Valley Management group, stated in an announcement that so far the management group has opposed the town council’s proposed measure as a result of “it could impose a a lot increased burden on the Palo Alto enterprise group than most neighboring cities and doesn't cap the tax for anyone enterprise.”
“For instance,” Kostenbauder stated, “the town of Santa Clara simply voted to put an up to date enterprise tax on the November poll that may increase about $6 million and would have a cap of $350,000 on anyone enterprise. In contrast, the newest Palo Alto proposal, with about half the inhabitants of Santa Clara, would increase about $16.5 million and would have a cap of $1 million for anyone enterprise.”
Mayor Pat Burt stated in an interview Tuesday that he’s hopeful the council will be capable to have a “critical dialogue” with enterprise leaders over the approaching days and has left the door open for negotiations regardless of his reservations in regards to the enterprise group’s motives and fears this controversy might bleed over to different points.
“They've said to us that they'll spend limitless funds to defeat the measure and that if we didn’t conform to their phrases that they'd moreover spend what it takes to defeat a gasoline switch payment measure we had been hoping to put on the identical poll,” Burt stated. “They’re hoping their monetary sources are such they'll management the result of an area election. Primarily based on that perception they've not likely been prepared to have vital negotiations.”
The utility tax measure would reaffirm the town council’s authority to make use of funds for metropolis companies, a legally doubtful observe that landed the town in a court docket in 2020.
Town council has lengthy touted the significance of the enterprise tax to proceed paying for metropolis companies and sort out the town’s preeminent problems with housing and high quality of life. Council members imagine the tax has broad group help and agree it’s a good tax, and metropolis employees say polling signifies that Palo Altans assume the tax is overdue. Burt warned enterprise leaders that even when they managed to defeat the measure through the election, Palo Altans — recognized for its grassroots activism — wouldn’t put up with it.
“We've got to get the measure to the county election authority by Friday and so the town council must act on it by Wednesday night time and finalize it so the employees have the time to evaluation it,” Burt stated. “We've got acquired indications that they’re prepared to have a significant dialogue, however we’ll see within the subsequent day what comes out of that. That’s the best way typically negotiations come right down to the eleventh hour.”