It is expensive to live in Mountain View. *cue shock, disbelief, and outrage*

We're just squishy piggy banks.

What does a business owner get by paying for a $30 business license?

How about we spend less money? I know, crazy thought.

We know the counsels solution for traffic, more bike kiosks. :) A total and utter failure.

Lenny, how about solving the traffic issue before building more houses? Lets put the carrot before the horse, not the other way around. I guess common sense does not prevail when you have newbies hollering for more housing.

"a new per-employee fee aimed at the city's largest companies, ...

The tax on large employers like Google"


Finally our city officials do something that helps the citizens of Mountain View. Let's charge Google $1,000 a month per employee and use the money to help teachers, school staff and other local workers who've been pushed out by Google. Google has been making enormous profits at our expense for long enough, and they'll have more money than ever with the new tax bill. It's high time they contribute a little bit to help fix the mess they've made.

re: business license fees,

The problem is not the $30 / year fee charged for very small businesses (some with no payroll and run from home) but that the fee goes up to only $100 / year for a large employer with hundreds or thousands of employees in one location. Almost any of our neighbors has a better balance (Palo Alto doesn't even levy a fee on businesses with less than one full-time employee) and generates far greater revenues.

They want to tax us again, yet sell our water to Palo Alto? That's rich.

I wouldn't vote to give this pack of irresponsible people another nickle, no matter what package they wrap their request in. They have shown over and over that all they care about is packing more people in so that they have more money to spend on programs that they have no business spending money on in the first place.

Pat Showalter wants to make sure she gets to tax AirBnB, yet doesn't care that we don't want a lane of El Camino taken away so empty buses can drive there. Both she and Ken Rosenberg misled people on this issue to get elected. I simply don't trust either of them to do what they say. Perhaps the council could begin to spend less rather than tax more. Be good stewards of the money you have before you have the nerve to ask for more.

Mountain View's self destruction continues apace.

There are 80 known airbnb rentals 8n Mountain View? How many unknown? There are three newly renovated homes in my neighborhood that sit completely empty, probably purchased by investors. Why was none of this discussed during all the arguments for rent control? Maybe we don't need more housing, maybe we just need to require people buying houses in Mountain View actually use them for the housing they were designed for. Big fines for airbnb rentals and big fines for leaving a house empty without a valid reason. This will add more housing without having to build and build. I know the numbers are small, but we need to get more efficient with the housing we have now before building more and more.

First of all, they need to end the obsession with "getting cars off the road". The problem is too many people, not too many cars.
If congestion is so bad, abolishing HOV lanes (which have never been proven to work) will only help alleviate it.
Experiments like double HOV lanes are the reason congestion is so exacerbated.
The true solution is to limit immigration.
A recent study showed that even as people leave the area, they are being replaced twice as fast by immigrants. I love immigrants (I am one) but they (the "best and brightest") shouldn't all be concentrated in the Bay Area and brought at such a rapid pace to work at Google and Facebook.
Blaming single-occupant commuters is so irrational because they form the majority of commuters, and they have to get to work on time. Time is precious.
The root cause of the monstrous congestion is overpopulation, not SOV's.

@Resident

Be the change you want to see.

I think it's funny how every politician seems to think they can tax their way out of problems. "If we only had more money we could fix anything" is the answer for everything in their minds?

People, your biggest problems are affordable housing and traffic congestion. Why?
I'll give you a hint.....TOO MANY PEOPLE in one place trying to get to work at the same time.
Why don't the politicians give a tax break instead(Oh that's like the bad word to them) to companies for employees that telecommute and work from home. Most of the high tech workers can do their job from home and be more productive.

Yea, Tax breaks as incentives Vs. Taxes for infrastructure. Oh, I forgot.. Money makes the world go around.

So, exactly how is MV benefitting from all of the commercial (and residential) growth? You'd think we'd be seeing an influx of city revenue, leading to the city and residents seeing a city with lots of improved amenities.

But that's not happening. The commercial growth has NOT led to:

- New and improved parks
- Improved transportation networks
- Reduced taxes/fees for residents
- Improved/new police/fire/libraries
- Signficantly paying down the pension liabilities, which will someday lead to massive budget cuts for services to residents.

How would things have been worse if we hadn't developed so much throughout town - North Bayshore, San Antonio, El Camino? The day-to-day lives of those who live here have only seen adverse impacts - crowded streets, packed schools, never-ending construction disruptions, etc.

Where's the evidence that Mountain View is better off from all this growth? If we'd "frozen" development (commercial and residential) 10 years ago, would we be worse off than today? I mean, geez...I'm willing to endure some daily pain if there's a benefit somewhere, but where is it?

If there's no upside, why participate? This applies to commercial (and subsequent residential aimed at "rectifying' the imbalance). We can't reverse the damage done, but we can get off the train (and maybe try to settle in with a calmer, more well-thought out plan for our community). Not every city needs to have multiple tech headquarter buildings and 100,000 residents.