RICHMOND ‘MEASURE T’ WILL HURT SMALL BUSINESS
18 September 2008‘Measure T’ May Have Scared Tesla Motors Away
From Selecting Richmond as Manufacturing Plant
BY PAT MURPHY
Sentinel Editor & Publisher
Copyright © 2008
While the increasingly dramatic pyrotechnics of the presidential campaign have eclipsed much of what’s been happening at the local level here in the Bay Area, there is one very interesting citywide ballot measure roiling the waters across the Bay in Richmond.
And the tax measure may have already cost the City of Richmond the chance to land the electric car manufacturer Tesla Motors. It is being whispered that the prospect of Measure T in Richmond turned them off and so they went to San Jose instead.
Measure T (as in TAX) is being sold to Richmond voters as a tax on the Chevron refinery that will have little or no impact on other local businesses and will add millions to city coffers. In fact, the measure raises the city’s tax on all manufacturers.
Most people believe that businesses should pay their fair share of taxes. These taxes help pay for street maintenance, schools and police and fire services, among other things. But the most important things to consider when crafting a new business tax are:
1) Is the tax rational and fair; and,
2) does it do more good than harm.
Measure T fails on both counts.
The supporters of Measure T desire to tax Chevron, but they are in a bind. You can’t just levy a tax on one company and exempt all others. That would be illegal. So what Measure T backers have done is to craft a new tax on ALL manufacturers in order, it appears, to get more money out of the oil giant. This is a supremely irrational and punitive approach to business taxation. This is one of the reasons rumored why Tesla decided against Richmond.
That means people who “make” or “manufacture” anything in Richmond—from restaurants that take food and make a sandwich to roofing contractors who fix leaks and replace roofs—will be charged the new tax. Measure T means everyone who makes any product or provides any additional value to a service can be taxed. This means two things: taxes for regular people who work in their homes and taxes on small businesses will go up. And, it also means that prices for Richmond residents will increase as the new tax will be passed on to consumers.
The City of Richmond needs all of the jobs it currently has and probably could use a lot more. Measure T will drive the prices of locally produced goods up, force some business under and others away.
The measure’s supporters are urging Richmond to cut off its nose to spite its face: By raising taxes on Chevron, supporters are willing to let every other local businesses suffer financial damage. These businesses will most likely pack up and go elsewhere–or simply shut their doors with the addition of a new tax. Any chance of creating hip new businesses or drawing small and progressive companies to Richmond will be dead. Imagine if you’re a small baking company and you have to pay this new tax in Richmond, but not in Berkeley or El Cerrito. Where are going to put your business? The place that costs less—and that won’t be Richmond if “T” is approved by voters in November.
Let’s hope Richmond voters see Measure T for what it is: a harmful tax on every small business in the city that won’t fix Richmond’s real problems. If Measure T passes, the Richmond City Council’s “green business initiative” to draw more solar, biofuel and other alternative energy companies will fail because why would any business want to settle in a city that will have the highest taxes of any city in Contra Costa County? Clearly, this must have had an impact on perhaps the most visible and sought after electric car company, Tesla, and why it chose San Jose over Richmond.
Measure T isn’t a progressive tax for Richmond, it’s a self-inflicted wound that will kill the growing “green,” small and home businesses that are starting to develop in Richmond.
See Related: BUSINESS
See Related: ENERGY SUPPLY
PAT MURPHY
Sentinel Editor & Publisher
In his youth, Pat Murphy worked as a General Assignment reporter for the Richmond Independent, the Berkeley Daily Gazette, and the San Francisco Chronicle. He served as Managing Editor of the St. Albans (Vermont) Daily Messenger at age 21. Murphy also launched ValPak couponing in San Francisco, as the company’s first San Francisco franchise owner. He walked the bricks, developing ad strategy for a broad range of restaurants and merchants. Pat knows what works and what doesn’t work. His writing skill has been employed by marketing agencies, including Don Solem & Associates. He has covered San Francisco governance for the past twelve years. Pat scribes an offbeat opinion column of the human family. Email Pat Murphy at SanFranciscoSentinel@yahoo.com.
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