Posted by Alex Matulich, a resident of the Willowgate neighborhood, on Aug 3, 2010 at 3:19 pm

I find it ironic that the City Council wants to broaden a tax because the current phone tax revenue has declined by $50,000, when in PRACTICALLY THE SAME BREATH, they UNANIMOUSLY agree that city managers are overpaid! See related story at Web Link

I'll bet the amount overpaid far exceeds the $50,000 decline. Perhaps the City Council should concentrate on getting the city's expenditures prioritized to live within its means, rather than propose yet another tax to serve as a band-aid for a problem that should be fixed.

Posted by BillSiliconValley, a resident of the Monta Loma neighborhood, on Aug 5, 2010 at 7:14 am

Does this tax say "Don't base your VoIP telecom company in Mountain View, we will tax it ! "

Has anyone at the city of Mountain View talked to Google about this ?

Google runs a service called Google Voice. They also have a number of other phone projects. It's real easy for Google to locate the servers for these services somewhere else, where there is no risk of taxation.

Google is Mountain View's biggest cash cow / revenue source. Why make them look elsewhere, especially when other cities would do anything to get a growing business.

Do we see Cupertino putting a special tax on music downloads from the iTunes store ?

Posted by "Just Think About It", a resident of the Blossom Valley neighborhood, on Aug 28, 2010 at 10:37 am

I agree with Alex Matulich. Instead of putting its house in order and take permanent action to control salary and benefit costs at city hall they want to raise taxes. I don't understand why they don't get it. The city is going to go bankrupt, companies are already moving out of the area creating a decline in the tax base and the city wants to burden its citizens who are unemployed with more taxes. The City Council has already unanimously agreed that the city managers are overpaid. Why not start by cutting salaries? The answer lies in the "golden rule". Those with the gold make the rules. Why do you think someone would spend thousands of dollars to win a council seat when it only pays about $5000 salary yearly?

................"Just Think About It"................