Business tax passes in Google’s hometown

Mountain View voters passed a business tax on Tuesday that will largely affect its hometown tech giant and biggest employer, Google.

Nearly 70 percent of voters backed Measure P, which implements a per-employee business license tax that ranges from $5 to $150 per worker, rising with the size of the company. Businesses will also pay a flat fee of $75 a year.

Google and its corporate parent, Alphabet, will pay over $3 million a year, contributing more than half of the tax’s estimated revenue of $6 million.

The measure was one of two major Bay Area corporate tax measures that won on Tuesday. San Francisco voters also passed Proposition C, which imposes a gross receipts tax on companies making $50 million or more in revenue.

Large tech companies including Salesforce and Square will pay tens of millions of dollars each year under Prop. C. It’s unclear how much Google would pay San Francisco, though companies with proportionately fewer employees and revenue in the city pay less tax. The revenue is to fund homelessness services and housing.

More than 20,000 Google employees work in Mountain View, according to real estate research firm CoStar. The company has a major office and housing expansion plan in Mountain View’s North Bayshore area.

Google, which didn’t take a position on Measure P, declined to comment.

Mountain View’s existing business tax generated about $250,000 per year and hadn’t changed since 1954. The new tax will be phased in beginning in 2020.

The City Council passed a resolution that requires 80 percent of the new funding to go to transit improvements and 10 percent to affordable housing, with the remaining 10 percent for general funding.