“Cupertino is exploring a tax on Apple and other companies based on the size of their workforce,” Wendy Lee reports for The San Francisco Chronicle. “The tax would probably be structured similar to a proposal in Mountain View, said David Brandt, Cupertino’s city manager. Cupertino has paid a firm to begin polling residents about the tax and how any revenue from it should be spent, Brandt said.”
“Mountain View is considering a head-count tax that could raise $10 million — of which Google would pay about half — under one scenario. The city could use the revenue for transportation or housing,” Lee reports. “In both Mountain View and Cupertino, the city councils would need to approve placing the item on the ballot. Then it would be up to voters.”
“How much money Cupertino would raise through an employer tax is still to be determined,” Lee reports. “Officials from the Bay Area Council, a public policy advocacy group that counts Apple as a member, oppose head-count taxes. ‘While it might feel good for some to take a whack at big job creators, such taxes will only undermine our region’s long-term economic health and competitiveness,’ council CEO Jim Wunderman wrote in a letter published in The Chronicle.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Leave it to the Cupertino City Council to attempt milking the golden goose.
Speaking of foul, er, fowl: Apple’s now a sitting duck for such, uh, pieces of legislation. It’s not like they’re going to abandon their brand new $5 billion glass doughnut, The Colossal Distraction, with its so-perfect-there-was-no-time-left-for-core-products door handles.
SEE ALSO:
Amazon suspends construction in Seattle while the city considers a new per-employee tax – May 2, 2018
Apple again expands downtown Seattle engineering center – April 17, 2018
Apple rumored to be taking big piece of Seattle-area office market in expansion – August 12, 2016
Apple buys machine-learning startup Turi for $200 million – August 6, 2016
Apple quietly buys Seattle firm to expand cloud offerings – November 4, 2014
