On Tuesday, July 12, the Tracy City Council voted 5-0 to place Business Tax, Measure B, on the November 8, 2022 Ballot.

Under Tracy’s existing 39-year-old business tax structure, small, locally owned businesses in Tracy are paying a much higher effective rate compared to larger businesses, such as our warehouses and big corporations.

In an effort to ensure greater equity, Tracy’s proposed business tax structure modernizes the business tax to more closely align with neighboring cities, while reducing taxes for approximately 80% of all businesses.   

Measure B provides additional resources that could be used on identified community priorities such as: maintaining and improving city streets and roads, keeping public areas healthy/safe/clean, maintaining and improving after-school programs, anti-gang activities, and recreation programs that keep young people off the streets, out of trouble and away from drugs and gangs, maintaining and improving rapid emergency and medical response times for police and fire by ensuring adequately staffed and trained police officers and firefighters, and additional support for local businesses.

Measure B gives our residents local control over local funds for local needs.

Measure B continues Tracy’s high standards for fiscal accountability and transparency with:

annual independent audits and oversight to ensure that funds are spent on identified community priorities. 

Measure B seeks to update and simplify our 39-year-old business tax ordinance so all businesses are paying a flat fee of $50 a year for the first $500,000 in gross receipts and a fixed percentage after the first $500,000 (ranging from 0.1% and 0.3% of gross receipts depending on business type), while keeping our local business tax rates generally lower than those in surrounding communities.

Links:

Official Measure Materials

Sample Rate Calculator

Power Point Presentation

FAQ