Concord voters will decide on Nov. 3 whether to rewrite a business license tax that city attorneys say has been substantially unchanged for about 40 years. Measure O, placed on the ballot unanimously by the City Council on July 28, 2026, would swap Concord's graduated gross-receipts schedule for a flat rate of one-tenth of one percent — $1 per $1,000 of gross receipts — and send the money to the city's general fund.

What the measure would change

Under Concord's current schedule, the rate falls from 0.1% to 0.03% as a firm's gross receipts climb, the city attorney's impartial analysis says. That means smaller general gross-receipts businesses can pay a higher effective rate than larger ones. Measure O would apply a single 0.1% rate to those general gross-receipts businesses and expand the small-business exemption beyond the current student- and senior-only carve-out. Manufacturing, specified professions and trades, apartments, hotels, motels, contractors and other specially listed categories would keep their existing rate rules.

The official ballot question, filed with Contra Costa County elections, asks voters to update Concord's business license rates to 0.1% of gross receipts until voters end the measure, providing an additional $2.9 million a year, with independent citizen oversight. Because the revenue is not locked to a single purpose, Measure O is a general tax and needs only a simple majority. City materials say Concord's existing Measure V Citizens' Oversight Committee would review the new money, and independent auditors would publish an annual report.

Why the council put it on the ballot

Concord's own budget pages describe a structural squeeze: the General Fund ran about $1.1 million in the red in fiscal 2024-25, staff projected roughly $2.3 million for 2025-26 before books closed, and the adopted budget foresaw a $2.8 million deficit in 2026-27, with gaps expected through 2030-32 without higher revenue, lower spending, or both. A community priorities survey and a statistically valid poll pointed residents toward potholes, 911 response, park upkeep, corridor congestion and senior and youth programs — the same list that appears in the ballot question.

The tax is paid by businesses operating in Concord, not by residents who are not business owners, according to the city attorney. The city frames Measure O as closing a fairness gap in the old tiered schedule while filling part of the operating hole with money Sacramento cannot seize.

Yes, no, and who is arguing

  • Yes: Replace the tiered schedule with the flat 0.1% rate and the expanded small-business exemption.
  • No: Keep the existing graduated business license tax as it stands.

The Contra Costa Taxpayers Association formally opposes Measure O and filed the official argument against it. CoCoTax calls the rewrite a roughly $3 million annual tax increase that businesses will pass to customers, notes that the money sits in the unrestricted General Fund with no sunset, and argues the package needs a hard spending lock before voters approve it. Full arguments and the city attorney's analysis are in the Contra Costa County voter information guide. For more November contests, see our Nov. 3, 2026 Bay Area election guide.