Dear Mayor Burt and council members,
In 2019 I publicly supported the business tax being discussed at the Finance Committee and consultant findings.
But I am not able now to support the current proposal.
Here are my reasons, suggestions and comments.
1) The staff report picked up in a Daily Post headline says that the top five companies in terms of footage will pay only 20% of the total BR revenue.
I ask staff to tell in whatever detail is appropriate, who will pay the other 80%.
The BT is being promoted as a fair share tax for (basically) large, profitable tech companies.
But it appears that they will actually not pay the bulk of the tax.
IT IS IMPORTANT TO KNOW WHO IS PAYING THE BULK OF THE REVENUE TO BE ABLE TO ASSESS EQUITY AND COMPETITVENESS CONSIDERATIONS.
This is especially true if council approves the recommendations to provide offsets to those paying transient occupancy or sales taxes. I would exempt them completely but this…
