Matt Mahood, president and CEO of the Sacramento Metro Chamber, appeared before the Sacramento City Council June 22, in official opposition of the placing a proposed Business Operations Tax increase on the November ballot. Here are his remarks:

I am here today to express our opposition to the staff recommendation and respectfully request that the City of Sacramento NOT take steps to place the proposed Revenue Measure on the ballot.

I request this because:

To date…the immediate stakeholders, the business community, have not been part of any conversation about what this new ordinance will look like.

In fact, it was not until late last Thursday afternoon (June 17), that a few of us were given a briefing by city staff.

While we were grateful for the briefing, but after reviewing it over the weekend, we have developed a set of questions, concerns and issues that we feel need to be addressed.

Until the employer community has the opportunity to better understand the implications of the measure, and actually has the opportunity to understand who is affected and what impact that may have, we are asking that this NOT move forward.

We understand the city has a budget gap and you are looking at ways to increase revenue. We want to be part of that process. But we want to have input in developing a comprehensive solution to solve the city’s budget issue—both revenue and expenses.

In fact, the Metro Chamber has been regularly meeting with other business groups and stakeholders to discuss the city’s budget challenges. We are prepared to work with city staff and the council, but we have yet had the opportunity to have a strategic discussion, because it seems each week we are dealing with another new proposal instead of having a longer term strategic discussion.

Now is not the time to be increasing the taxes on businesses that operate in the city of Sacramento.

While this proposal may seam like a marginal increase to some, it is on top of all the other costs that are already higher in the city compared to many others in the region. It is a 75 percent increase in the BOT and a 10 time increase in the maximum amount.

The city of Sacramento already has the highest lease rates for office and retail space, the highest Utility User Tax, the highest BOT—even prior to this new proposal, and it costs both employees and customers to park in the downtown. Sacramento is becoming increasing less competitive than that of the other cities in the Sacramento region.

In this current economic climate, you should be taking steps to make doing business in the city easier, less expensive, not be making the city less business friendly.

It is proposals like this that continue to not only foster the perception that the city of Sacramento is less employer-friendly than its neighbors, but in fact prove it the reality.

I respectfully request that the city of Sacramento not place the proposed revenue measure on the ballot until these concerns have been addressed and a comprehensive solution is developed for addressing the city’s budget situation.