OAKLAND — The way Oakland taxes its businesses is going to change, but how isn’t clear yet because four proposals to accomplish that are competing to get on the November election ballot.formally introduced it Thursday
“There are so many issues we are asking voters to pay attention to, then we are asking them to analyze four different measures of the same issue. I think that sends a poor message,” Councilmember Sheng Thao said at the meeting. Fortunato Bas and Fife subsequently came up with a modified version of that proposal, one that charges slightly different rates to various categories of businesses. They say that under their proposal, about 97% of the city’s businesses would end up paying either the same as now or less, while 3% would face a higher rate.
“Our tax base is too small. We do not have enough business to be taxed. The rate of increase needs to be reasonable, not drastic and desperate,” said Zack Wasserman of the Oakland Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce. “The unintended consequences and ripple effects of this massive tax hike proposal would not only seriously hobble Oakland’s slow recovery from the pandemic but would jeopardize the city’s longer-term prospects for growing the economy, attracting jobs and securing new companies and investment,” Jeff Bellisario, executive director of the Bay Area Council Economic Institute, said in a written statement included with the study.
HARD PASS
And that's yet another reason why we're leaving Oakland. That and lack of, ya know, basic broadband internet. We quite literally had faster internet on an aircraft carrier in the middle of the ocean in 2008. Like 10x faster. LibbySchaaf