On Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2026, San Bruno voters will decide Measure EE. The City Council measure would replace the city's business license tax, last fully updated in 1999, with a tax based on gross receipts. The city estimates it would bring in about $4 million more a year for general city services.

Why it matters: The city expects most small businesses to see little change. Larger businesses, professional firms and contractors working in San Bruno would generally pay more. The tax has no end date and passes with a simple majority.

What a yes vote does

Right now San Bruno calculates the tax in many different ways depending on the type of business, City Attorney Trisha Ortiz writes in her impartial analysis. The formulas use things like office square footage, employee counts, vehicles and rooms for rent, and even the number of bowling alleys or amusement devices. For businesses taxed on receipts, the rate per dollar drops as the business grows. The city's FAQ calls that structure "regressive."

Measure EE would put almost every business on the same system:

  • $75 flat for businesses with gross receipts of $75,000 or less. That's the same base rate as today.
  • $1.00 per $1,000 of receipts above $75,000 for general and retail businesses, including restaurants, wholesalers, manufacturers, utilities and administrative headquarters.
  • $1.50 per $1,000 for service businesses and for real estate and rental businesses.
  • $2.00 per $1,000 for professional businesses (law, medicine, consulting, research) and for contractors.

Cardrooms and airport parking lots, which pay 8% of gross receipts, would keep their own separate rates.

The city estimates more than 70% of current businesses would see a change of $100 a year or less, and many would pay less. People who rent out a room or an ADU on the property where they live would be exempt, and nonprofits stay exempt. Contractors based outside San Bruno would pay on what they earn in the city.

If the measure passes, the new rates start Jan. 1, 2027, and businesses switch over at their 2027 renewal. Because it is a general tax, the money can go to any city purpose. The ballot question mentions pothole repair, 911 response, library programs and parks, and promises yearly independent audits.

What a no vote does

A no vote keeps San Bruno's current business license rates and structure as they are.

Who's for and against

The San Bruno City Council put the measure on the ballot and signed the argument in favor. It says state actions threaten more than $20 million a year in city revenue and that the 1999 tax "no longer reflects today's economy." It also says the new rates would ask large businesses to "contribute appropriately while protecting small businesses."

The Silicon Valley Taxpayers Association filed the argument against, calling Measure EE a "huge new tax hike." It argues that businesses pass taxes on to customers through higher prices and to workers through lower pay, and that some owners could move to other cities.

The city says San Bruno collects about $52 per resident in business taxes, compared with about $66 in Daly City, $63 in Burlingame and $49 in South San Francisco.

Also on the San Bruno ballot

San Bruno voters will also decide Measure DD, a ban on safe-and-sane fireworks, and Measure S, which would repeal the city's 1977 height-limit ordinance. Next door, Brisbane has its own gross-receipts question in Measure X. Every race and measure we've covered is in our Election 2026 guide.