Watsonville City Council Votes to Raise TOT Tax

Last week the City of Watsonville voted to place an increase in the Transient Occupancy Tax (TOT) from 11 percent to 12 percent on the November ballot. TOT Taxes, otherwise known as hotel taxes, are an additional charge levied on overnight guests staying within a given area based upon how much they are paying for…

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Business Council Membership Unanimously Votes to Oppose Rent Control

Robert Singleton Executive Director Santa Cruz County Business Council robert.singleton@sccbusinesscouncil.com (707) 569-4546 Business Council Membership Unanimously Votes to Oppose Rent Control The Santa Cruz County Business Council Membership in their vote chose to follow the recommendation of our Board of Directors to oppose the Rent Control and Just Cause Eviction Measure as well as the…

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Strong Business, Better Community: My Time at the SCC Business Council

By: Sandra Parhami My name is Sandra Parhami, and for the last seven months I have served as the Policy and Programs Intern for the Santa Cruz County Business Council. As a recent college graduate from UCSC, I studied Economics and Cognitive Science— many would see this as a peculiar combination, but I thoroughly enjoyed…

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High Tax Burden is Burning Out Local Cannabis Industry

By: Sandra Parhami After more than a century of prohibition on recreational Marijuana, constituents were hopeful that the passage of Proposition 64, the Adult Use of Marijuana Act (AUMA), approved by voters in 2016, would create state and federal tax revenue, as well as reduce the scope of the unregulated market, or ‘black market’, to…

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