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Minutes - San Leandro City Council Meeting - November 6, 1995 Page - 7 - NEW BUSINESS (continued) because not having gross receipts is an attraction to business. He said the City Council does not understand the cost of doing business or the regulatory requirements. He said many businesses cannot even afford to join the Chamber of Commerce. Businesses will be upset if they don't feel the City Council has made an effort to go back to the budget and make adjustments. He said the City Council should reconsider the increase and go back to the table and work with the community. Council Member Galvan asked if Dr. Goodrich advocated the alternate plan suggested in his letter. Dr. Goodrich said increasing the base fee was suggested as a concept, and he realized it would drastically hurt smaller businesses. He said there are alternatives to gross receipts which have not been completely addressed. Council Member Polvorosa said Mr. Jermanis has worked with the Chamber and Manufacturers' Association and noted many businesses pay business license fees that are less than Chamber membership. Dr. Goodrich said most businesses are not opposed to paying a small increase, but to the way in which they are asked to do it. He said the gross receipts concept gives the City the ability to earn more money year after year as businesses grow, and it will be easy for future Councils to easily increase the rate. Council Member Myers said the change is not complicated, it's different. He said the current Council cannot hold any future Council to any future vote. Vice Mayor Kerr asked Dr. Goodrich if the Chamber would be willing to work with a Council committee on a concept other than gross receipts. Dr. Goodrich said they would. John Jermanis described the current and proposed process for checking business license calculations and said only very large businesses will be affected by the proposal . He said he looked at all the other license structures in the State and found there is not a process that is more equitable for smaller businesses. He said 80% of the businesses in San Leandro will not be affected. He discussed the inequities of other structures for small businesses. Dr. Goodrich said no time has been dedicated to revising the employee base fee. Council Member Perry pointed out that this process started at the beginning of the year and asked why this wasn't brought up a long time ago. She said raising the base fee would affect more than 80% of businesses.