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Employee ‘Head Tax’ Headed to Vote in Google’s Hometown
Voters in Google’s Mountain View, CA hometown will get to decide if the giant search engine and other businesses in the city must pay an employee or ‘head tax,’ to help solve challenges stemming from their growth. That includes finding solutions to traffic congestion, and other issues such as affordable housing.
The City Council voted to place a measure on the November ballot seeking residents to authorize a tax on businesses ranging from $9 to $149 per employee. The city estimates a tax could generate roughly $6 million annually, with the majority of that amount, $3.3 million, coming from Google. Most of the money generated would go to transit projects, with 10% earmarked for affordable housing and homeless services.
Mountain View’s current business tax, based on businesses’ square footage, has been in place since 1954. The proposed tax, which would be phased in over two years starting in 2020, requires a simple majority approval.
The movement to extract money from companies based on employee count is not without recent precedent. Seattle, which had passed a ‘head tax’ in an effort to alleviate homelessness, just decided against enacting the tax on large companies such as Amazon.
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