{"id":396,"date":"2011-05-16T04:41:16","date_gmt":"2011-05-16T04:41:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thesecretnewsonline.com\/?p=396"},"modified":"2011-06-04T00:32:01","modified_gmt":"2011-06-04T00:32:01","slug":"should-big-business-in-emeryville-pay-their-fair-share","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.thesecretnewsonline.com\/?p=396","title":{"rendered":"Should Big Business in Emeryville Pay Their Fair Share?"},"content":{"rendered":"

For years, the City Council has given the city’s biggest businesses the biggest tax breaks.<\/p>\n

Residents and small business owners in town have begun to ask why. On Tuesday, the City Council will decide whether to put an initiative on the November ballot asking voters to decide whether the city’s multi-billion dollar businesses should pay what every other business pays.<\/p>\n

Here’s the story on the city’s current business tax:
\nEvery city has a business license tax and every business in Emeryville grossing more than $5,000 must pay this tax. Businesses pay a percentage of their gross receipts whether they earn a profit or not.<\/p>\n

But the city’s big business — Pixar, Novartis, and Bayer, to name a few — which make billions in profits every year, are required to pay tax only on the first $146 million they earn. The rest is entirely tax-free. The pat reason given by the City Council majority is it must provide incentives so as not to lose big business to other cities. Yet Emeryville is among the most desirable places to do business in the Bay Area (see story in Business\/Economy section on Santen moving its US headquarters to Emeryville<\/em>).<\/p>\n

So, the City Council majority is not willing to ask big business to pay their fair share, but is willing to cut staff and community services to make up a projected budget gap of $1.66 million and $1.42 million for the next two years, respectively. Emeryville is the only city in Alameda County that places a cap on the maximum business license fee.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In a memo to the City Council in March 2010, Emeryville resident Brian Carver, Assistant Professor at the UC Berkeley School of Information, offered an easy solution, one that would actually let the City Council continue to afford big business special treatment:<\/p>\n

Don’t eliminate the city’s one-of-a-kind cap. Just make a modest increase from (the 2010 cap) of $115,774 to $400,000. That increase would generate an additional $1.7 million in revenue — completely eliminating the projected budget gaps for the next two years, AND providing a modest surplus. The change would only affect those businesses whose gross receipts are greater than $144.7 million annually.<\/p>\n

However, at a recent city Finance Committee meeting, Carver said has changed his position. Since learning that voters have to approve an increase in the cap, he supports the city authorizing a ballot measure to simply eliminate it. Otherwise, the city will be required to return to the voters each and every time it wants to raise the cap. Doing away with the cap will also bring Emeryville in line with every other city in the Bay Area, none of which put a maximum on their business license tax.<\/p>\n

Read the story about Brian Carver’s memo here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Read an opinion piece by long-time Emeryville resident and small business owner Scott Donahue here.<\/a><\/p>\n

And come to Tuesday’s City Council meeting to offer your two cents — it could save the city millions.<\/p>\n

Tracy Schroth<\/strong> is editor of The Secret News and a member of RULE (Residents United for a Liveable Emeryville). She has lived in Emeryville for eight years.\"\"<\/em><\/p>\n