The Emeryville City Council last night ignored Pixar’s pleas and instructed the city attorney to begin preparations for a November ballot initiative on whether business taxes should be raised. In a stunning 5-0 vote that featured two reversals, the council moved forward two issues for voters’ consideration: raising the tax rate on all businesses, and eliminating the infamous business tax cap, a tax scheme that exempts the city’s largest corporations’ from paying tax on any gross receipts beyond the first $146 million. Emeryville is home to several multi-billion dollar corporations, including Pixar and Novartis. Before the Council vote, Pixar attorney Anna Shimko, a partner in the San Francisco office of Sedgwick LLP, warned of a coming season of “rancor” from the business community as the election draws close. Such an initiative is “not advisable,” she said, if businesses in Emeryville are to “grow and flourish,” hinting at unwelcome consequences if the initiative goes forward. “I know you to be a responsible and intelligent council” she concluded. Shimko offered the Council a way out in the form of a delayed vote until the next Council meeting so that the business community could give the council additional information and properly apprise the