San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom has announced that in November 2008 he will submit a carbon tax to voters for their approval. If it passes, it would be only the second such carbon tax in a U.S. city, the first was Boulder, Colo., last year. The draft plan would raise utility taxes for businesses but would be roughly balanced out by a small decrease in payroll taxes. The plan also aims to reward businesses that get their employees to take public transportation or otherwise eschew personal cars.
source: Associated Press
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Wolverine Posted 6:12 am
06 Dec 2007
Getting Employees To Eschew Cars
While I applaud the effort, there is little chance that people will give up driving just because their employer will get a tax break for it. Employers will have to have some pretty significant sticks and carrots in order to get their employees out of their cars. A carbon tax on DRIVERS would be a much more effective approach, but would probably not be politically popular (though in SF, who knows?), which is the most likely reason that a politician like Newsom won't try that.
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