Big firms may get taxed on workers

Cupertino is exploring a tax on Apple and other companies based on the size of their workforce.

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.

Apple did not immediately return a request for comment. The company has more than 25,000 employees in the Bay Area. Specific numbers for Cupertino — where it is by far the largest employer — were unavailable.

Other cities with big tech firms have considered similar taxes. Last week, Amazon’s hometown of Seattle passed a tax that would charge $275

per employee for businesses that make at least $20 million a year there. San Jose, Redwood City and Sunnvyale have head-count taxes.

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.

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. Brandt said the City Council could discuss the polling results as early as June.

In 2016, Barry Chang, then the city’s mayor and now a councilman, pushed for the city to tax large companies $1,000 per employee, but that encountered stiff opposition from businesses and failed to move forward. Chang said he would like to see money from a new tax go toward transportation.

Officials from the Bay Area Council, a public policy advocacy group that counts Apple as a member, oppose headcount 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.

Wendy Lee is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: wlee@ sfchronicle.com Twitter: @thewendylee