After Seattle’s recent enactment of an employee head count tax to combat an acute housing shortage blamed on the rapid growth of Amazon and other high tech companies, cities in Silicon Valley are moving forward with similar proposals.
Mountain View, home to Alphabet, Intuit Inc., and LinkedIn, has proposed a tax that could cost major local employers between $250 and $300 a head. The city council is expected to vote on the bill next month.
Palo Alto's city council recently voted to send a tax measure to voters in November that would raise levies on hotel rooms and on real estate transactions. The taxes could affect tech businesses buying new offices and visitors doing business with them. The city failed to pass a direct business tax almost a decade ago.
In San Francisco, a coalition of non-profit organizations is spearheading an effort to tax companies 0.5% on earnings of more than $50 million. Seattle will tax large employers $275 per employee for a total expected to be about $50 million.
Related Stories
| Jan 3, 2012
Rental Renaissance, The Rebirth of the Apartment Market
Across much of the U.S., apartment rents are rising, vacancy rates are falling. In just about every major urban area, new multifamily rental projects and major renovations are coming online. It may be too soon to pronounce the rental market fully recovered, but the trend is promising.
| Dec 27, 2011
Ground broken for adaptive reuse project
Located on the Garden State Parkway, the master-planned project initially includes the conversion of a 114-year-old, 365,000-square-foot, six-story warehouse building into 361 loft-style apartments, and the creation of a three-level parking facility.
| Dec 12, 2011
Mojo Stumer takes top honors at AIA Long Island Design Awards
Firm's TriBeCa Loft wins "Archi" for interior design.
| Dec 5, 2011
Gables Residential brings mixed-use building to Houston's Tanglewood area
The design integrates a detailed brick and masonry facade, acknowledging the soft pastel color palette of the surrounding Mediterranean heritage of Tanglewood.
| Dec 2, 2011
What are you waiting for? BD+C's 2012 40 Under 40 nominations are due Friday, Jan. 20
Nominate a colleague, peer, or even yourself. Applications available here.
| Dec 2, 2011
Goody Clancy awarded Ohio State residential project
The project, which is focused on developing a vibrant on-campus community of learning for OSU undergraduates.
| Nov 29, 2011
Suffolk Construction breaks ground on Boston residential tower
Millennium Place III is a $220 million, 256-unit development that will occupy a full city block in Boston’s Downtown Crossing.
| Nov 15, 2011
Suffolk Construction breaks ground on the Victor housing development in Boston
Project team to manage construction of $92 million, 377,000 square-foot residential tower.
| Nov 15, 2011
Miller joins Perkins Eastman as regional manager, Middle East and Northern Africa
Miller joins Perkins Eastman with more than 48 years of experience in architecture, design management, and construction administration for planning and infrastructure.
| Nov 14, 2011
303 East 33rd Street building achieves LEED-NC
The 165,000 sf 12-story residential building is the first green development to be LEED certified in the Murray Hill neighborhood of Manhattan.
