By Khalida Sarwari
Santa Clara County voters Tuesday approved an ordinance updating Cupertino’s utility users tax to continue to fund city services, but rejected a measure to establish a business license tax in Palo Alto as well as two parcel taxes to improve schools.
Voters did not approve Palo Alto’s business license tax, the most prominent measure on the ballot that would have required businesses located or conducted in Palo Alto to pay a tax to the city.
Measure A needed a majority vote to pass, and fell short with only 43.5 percent of voters approving it, according to complete unofficial election results.
The tax was estimated to generate nearly $3 million annually in local revenue and would have gone towards the city’s general fund, supporting police and fire protection, senior and youth programs, street repairs, parks and recreation and library programs.
Under the tax, all businesses would have been charged $75 for the first employee, and certain businesses would have been charged $34 for each additional employee.
Measure B asked voters whether Cupertino’s telephone utility users tax should be updated to continue to fund city services. The measure needed a majority vote to pass. About 75 percent of voters agreed that it should be updated.
Two parcel tax measures on the ballot were for the Santa Clara Unified School District and the Fremont Union High School District.
Santa Clara Unified School District’s Measure C received 62.6 percent of the votes, falling short of the two-thirds majority needed to authorize an annual $138 parcel tax to fund education programs.
Fremont Union High School District’s Measure G, an ordinance that will replace an existing expiring parcel tax with the same annual $98 per year parcel tax to fund education, also fell short. The measure required a two-thirds majority to pass, but was only approved by about 59 percent of voters.
A total of 56,760 votes were tallied in Santa Clara County for the various measures and elections, according to the county’s registrar of voters.