{
  "generated_at": "2026-10-29T17:20:00Z",
  "question": "Whether any official record shows a tax on software-as-a-service (cloud software), possibly 15%, possibly affecting services such as Salesforce, being discussed, proposed, introduced, scheduled or adopted in Aurora, Illinois in 2026; focus on the meetings of Tuesday 2026-10-27.",
  "paths_note": "Local paths are relative to the investigation folder. Downloaded files are listed with sha256 and size in evidence/software-tax/MANIFEST.json; browser captures are listed there too, with method 'browser-capture' or 'browser screenshot'.",
  "transcript_note": "All transcript wording below is YouTube's English auto-generated (speech-recognition) transcript of the City of Aurora's own recordings, read in the built-in browser. It is machine output, not an official transcript: words, names and numbers may be wrong. Timestamps are positions in the YouTube video (h:mm:ss), not clock time.",
  "checked": [
    {
      "source": "Legistar API event 4964 (Finance Committee, 2026-10-20 1:00 PM, Special Budget Meeting): event record, event items with attachments, agenda PDF",
      "url": "https://webapi.legistar.com/v1/aurora-il/events/4964/eventitems?Attachments=1&AgendaNote=1&MinutesNote=1",
      "retrieved_at": "2026-10-29T16:27:50Z",
      "result": "not_located",
      "detail": "Agenda: 'Information Only - Overview Discussion of 2027 Budget'; 26-0664 'Review of the Proposed 2027 City Budget-Finance, Clerk, Human Resources and Law'. No item on a software, SaaS, cloud or lease tax. No attachments; no published minutes; EventMedia null. Agenda PDF evidence/software-tax/agendas/4964_A_Finance_Committee_26-10-20_Agenda.pdf."
    },
    {
      "source": "Legistar API event 4965 (Finance Committee, 2026-10-22 3:00 PM, Special Budget Meeting)",
      "url": "https://webapi.legistar.com/v1/aurora-il/events/4965/eventitems?Attachments=1&AgendaNote=1&MinutesNote=1",
      "retrieved_at": "2026-10-29T16:27:51Z",
      "result": "not_located",
      "detail": "Agenda (Final - Revised): 26-0665 'Review of the Proposed 2027 City Budget-Communications and Marketing and Community Services and Law'. No tax item; no attachments; no published minutes; EventMedia 2252."
    },
    {
      "source": "Legistar API event 4966 (Finance Committee, 2026-10-27 2:00 PM, Special Budget Meeting)",
      "url": "https://webapi.legistar.com/v1/aurora-il/events/4966/eventitems?Attachments=1&AgendaNote=1&MinutesNote=1",
      "retrieved_at": "2026-10-29T16:27:52Z",
      "result": "not_located",
      "detail": "Agenda: 26-0666 'Review of the Proposed 2027 City Budget-Community Services, Development Services, Sustainability, and IT'. No tax item; no attachments; no published minutes; EventMedia null (re-checked 2026-10-29T17:14:59Z, unchanged)."
    },
    {
      "source": "Legistar API event 4919 (Finance Committee, 2026-10-29 3:00 PM)",
      "url": "https://webapi.legistar.com/v1/aurora-il/events/4919/eventitems?Attachments=1&AgendaNote=1&MinutesNote=1",
      "retrieved_at": "2026-10-29T16:27:53Z",
      "result": "not_located",
      "detail": "Agenda items include minutes approvals, 26-0629, 26-0603, 26-0686, 26-0688 and 26-0667 'Review of the Proposed 2027 City Budget-Mayor's Office, Aldermen, Board & Commissions'. No tax item. Meeting had not yet taken place at collection time."
    },
    {
      "source": "Legistar API event 4986 (City Council special meeting, 2026-10-20)",
      "url": "https://webapi.legistar.com/v1/aurora-il/events/4986/eventitems?Attachments=1&AgendaNote=1&MinutesNote=1",
      "retrieved_at": "2026-10-29T16:27:54Z",
      "result": "not_located",
      "detail": "Items 26-0656 (patio license) and 26-0685 (Reduction in Force Severance Plan; minutes note: Stacey Peterson, Chief Financial Officer, responded to questions). No tax item."
    },
    {
      "source": "Legistar API event 4791 (City Council, 2026-10-27 6:00 PM)",
      "url": "https://webapi.legistar.com/v1/aurora-il/events/4791/eventitems?Attachments=1&AgendaNote=1&MinutesNote=1",
      "retrieved_at": "2026-10-29T16:27:55Z",
      "result": "not_located",
      "detail": "No agenda item, matter or attachment on a software, SaaS, cloud or lease tax. MAYOR'S REPORT (event item 193636) has no attachment and no agenda or minutes note. Minutes status Draft; no minutes file (re-checked 2026-10-29T17:14:58Z, unchanged). EventMedia 2254."
    },
    {
      "source": "Legistar API event 4767 (Committee of the Whole, 2026-10-20 5:00 PM)",
      "url": "https://webapi.legistar.com/v1/aurora-il/events/4767/eventitems?Attachments=1&AgendaNote=1&MinutesNote=1",
      "retrieved_at": "2026-10-29T16:27:56Z",
      "result": "not_located",
      "detail": "No tax item; Finance Committee report lists items from the 2026-10-15 meeting only."
    },
    {
      "source": "Legistar agenda PDFs for events 4964, 4965, 4966, 4919, 4986, 4791, 4767",
      "url": "https://legistar1.granicus.com/aurora-il/meetings/2026/10/",
      "retrieved_at": "2026-10-29T16:28:38Z",
      "result": "not_located",
      "detail": "Text searched for software, SaaS, cloud, lease, digital, streaming, amusement, tax, revenue, Salesforce, subscription, computer: only match is 26-0659 'a new lease with Crosstown Fiber IL LLC' (the City leasing its dark fiber)."
    },
    {
      "source": "Legistar MeetingDetail pages for the seven events (saved with curl; 4966 also read in the built-in browser)",
      "url": "https://aurora-il.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?LEGID=4966&GID=308&G=DC7A6B50-7190-431C-A25A-5C223FFADE72",
      "retrieved_at": "2026-10-29T16:32:36Z",
      "result": "not_located",
      "detail": "All seven: 'Published minutes: Not available'; no meeting-level attachments. Finance Committee special meetings show 'Meeting Items (0)' in the default 'Legislation only' view. Only 4791 carries item-level video links (two appointment items, Granicus clip 2254)."
    },
    {
      "source": "Legistar API matters with MatterId >= 15290 (419 matters, 410 with 26- file numbers; titles searched)",
      "url": "https://webapi.legistar.com/v1/aurora-il/matters?$filter=MatterId+ge+15290&$top=1000&$skip=0&$orderby=MatterId",
      "retrieved_at": "2026-10-29T16:30:19Z",
      "result": "not_located",
      "detail": "No 2026 title mentions a software, SaaS, cloud, lease or leasing tax, a digital or streaming tax, an amusement tax or a new tax. Software titles are City purchases (26-0126 DocuSign CLM subscription, 26-0205 Genetec software subscription, 26-0349 Quicket software). 26-0446 amends amusement-device licensing definitions."
    },
    {
      "source": "Legistar API matter texts: /matters/{id}/versions and /matters/{id}/texts/{textId} for all 419 matters (493 texts)",
      "url": "https://webapi.legistar.com/v1/aurora-il/matters/{id}/texts/{textId}",
      "retrieved_at": "2026-10-29T16:40:02Z",
      "result": "not_located",
      "detail": "Regex search of titles and plain texts (software, SaaS, cloud, computer software, lease/leasing tax, personal property lease, digital, streaming, amusement/entertainment tax, new tax, Salesforce, subscription, 15%). No hit concerns a tax on software. Hits: 26-0126 describes DocuSign as a 'software as a service solution (SaaS)' the City buys; 26-0389 notice of an SSA 1 property tax levy hearing; 15% hits are health-insurance premiums, HUD caps and a 15% ABV liquor limit. Files: evidence/software-tax/api/matter-texts/ (912 files); search script tools/software-tax/search_matter_texts.py."
    },
    {
      "source": "Legistar API lookup of the budget-review matters on the Finance Committee agendas (26-0663 to 26-0667)",
      "url": "https://webapi.legistar.com/v1/aurora-il/matters?$filter=MatterFile+eq+'26-0664'",
      "retrieved_at": "2026-10-29T16:31:00Z",
      "result": "failed",
      "detail": "Collection gap: the API returns [] for MatterFile 26-0664 and HTTP 404 for MatterIds 15956-15962; the matters are not exposed by the API or listed on the Legistar meeting pages, so their text and any attachments (for example departmental presentations) could not be checked. About 295 of the file numbers 26-0001 to 26-0705 are not visible through the API. Retrieval time approximate; the probe responses were not saved as files."
    },
    {
      "source": "Granicus archive listing (ViewPublisher view_id=1)",
      "url": "https://aurora-il.granicus.com/ViewPublisher.php?view_id=1",
      "retrieved_at": "2026-10-29T16:33:20Z",
      "result": "located",
      "detail": "Clips: 2247 City Council 2026-10-20 (special); 2248 '10-20-2026 Special City Council Meeting' 00h 00m; 2249 Committee of the Whole 2026-10-20 03h 02m; 2250 '10-20-2026 COW' 00h 00m; 2252 Finance Committee 2026-10-22 01h 49m; 2253 Infrastructure and Technology Committee 2026-10-26; 2254 City Council 2026-10-27 03h 43m; 2256 '10-27-2026 City Council' 03h 43m. No clip listed for the Finance Committee meetings of 2026-10-20 (event 4964) or 2026-10-27 (event 4966). Finance Committee 2026-10-29 listed as upcoming (event_id 3351)."
    },
    {
      "source": "Granicus player and index, clip 2254 (City Council 2026-10-27)",
      "url": "https://aurora-il.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=1&clip_id=2254",
      "retrieved_at": "2026-10-29T16:33:24Z",
      "result": "located",
      "detail": "Published index: MAYOR'S REPORT at 520 s (0:08:40), PUBLIC COMMENT at 5205 s (1:26:45), CONSENT AGENDA at 8060 s. Player shows 'No documents available.' Captions not usable (see captions entry)."
    },
    {
      "source": "Granicus player and index, clip 2252 (Finance Committee 2026-10-22)",
      "url": "https://aurora-il.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=1&clip_id=2252",
      "retrieved_at": "2026-10-29T16:33:25Z",
      "result": "not_located",
      "detail": "Index: PUBLIC COMMENT 112 s; 26-0665 budget review 413 s; ADJOURNMENT 6560 s. No index entry on a tax."
    },
    {
      "source": "Granicus caption files /videos/{clip}/captions.vtt for clips 2247, 2248, 2249, 2250, 2252, 2254, 2256",
      "url": "https://aurora-il.granicus.com/videos/2254/captions.vtt",
      "retrieved_at": "2026-10-29T16:34:16Z",
      "result": "not_located",
      "detail": "Each file loads (HTTP 200) but holds only the 'WEBVTT' header (8 bytes); no caption text is published on Granicus. Player config shows captionsEnabled = false."
    },
    {
      "source": "Granicus clips 2251 and 2255 (not in the archive listing)",
      "url": "https://aurora-il.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=1&clip_id=2251",
      "retrieved_at": "2026-10-29T16:34:33Z",
      "result": "failed",
      "detail": "Both redirect to /panes/PermissionDenied.php (HTTP 403). Which meetings they hold could not be determined."
    },
    {
      "source": "Granicus AgendaViewer for clips 2247, 2249, 2252, 2254",
      "url": "https://aurora-il.granicus.com/AgendaViewer.php?view_id=1&clip_id=2254",
      "retrieved_at": "2026-10-29T16:40:59Z",
      "result": "not_located",
      "detail": "Serves the same agenda PDFs as Legistar (identical sha256)."
    },
    {
      "source": "City of Aurora YouTube channel, live streams list (channel linked from the City's 2026-10-26 news release and ACTV page)",
      "url": "https://www.youtube.com/@CityofAuroraIllinois/streams",
      "retrieved_at": "2026-10-29T16:44:00Z",
      "result": "located",
      "detail": "Recordings: Special Finance Committee 10-20 (VP-OSAxwdgs), 10-22 (TAnkOqg4ElU), 10-27 (Rd21quVqnz4); Committee of the Whole 10-20 (ov6KtFPgtHQ); Special City Council 10-20 (nk_qCFhgg_w); City Council 10-27 (MUm_pgdi_4g); Finance Committee 10-29 (fDKIoZMG90g) listed as Upcoming; 'Summer Civics Series: Finalized Budget Town Hall' (0L6_r1r15q8, live 2026-09-26). Retrieval time approximate (read in the browser, not saved)."
    },
    {
      "source": "YouTube auto-generated transcript, City Council 2026-10-27 (MUm_pgdi_4g)",
      "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUm_pgdi_4g",
      "retrieved_at": "2026-10-29T16:46:36Z",
      "result": "located",
      "detail": "Presentation on a 'PPL' (personal property lease) tax aimed at cloud software / software as a service, during the Mayor's Report, 53:52-1:25:49, introduced at 24:36-25:56 and 33:51. 1,712 segments; full-transcript sha256 7b875c8f17d9d283c642b77b15bc05142500b205655902ec78e764d20d09018d. Verbatim excerpts saved and hash-verified: evidence/software-tax/browser-captures/youtube_MUm_pgdi_4g_CityCouncil_2026-10-27_excerpt_{A,B,C}_*.txt."
    },
    {
      "source": "Video frames from the City Council 2026-10-27 YouTube recording (slides shown and dais nameplates)",
      "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUm_pgdi_4g&t=3600s",
      "retrieved_at": "2026-10-29T17:10:26Z",
      "result": "located",
      "detail": "Slides captured: 'Personal Property Lease Transaction Tax' (55:02); slide 2 'What the tax does' (57:57, 59:45); slide 4 'Chicago collections show a growing tax base' (1:00:02-1:00:57); slide 5 'Other Considerations' (1:01:45-1:13:58). Speaker frames at 24:51, 54:14, 1:02:42, 1:16:12 and 1:25:37 show the speaker behind the nameplate 'JOHN LAESCH / MAYOR'. A slide numbered 3 was not seen in frames at 59:24, 59:45, 59:48 and 59:50. Files in evidence/software-tax/browser-captures/frames/."
    },
    {
      "source": "YouTube auto-generated transcript, Special Finance Committee 2026-10-27 (Rd21quVqnz4)",
      "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rd21quVqnz4",
      "retrieved_at": "2026-10-29T17:12:25Z",
      "result": "not_located",
      "detail": "1,220 segments (live 18:58-21:37 UTC). Three regex searches (software/SaaS/cloud/Salesforce/lease/streaming/amusement/Chicago/15%; tax/revenue/levy; PPL/personal property/Adobe/revenue option/new revenue/Thompson/lease tax/transaction tax). No remark about a software, SaaS, cloud or lease tax. Software remarks concern City software; '15%' refers to a department's budget reduction (1:39:49, 1:40:56)."
    },
    {
      "source": "YouTube auto-generated transcript, Special Finance Committee 2026-10-20 (VP-OSAxwdgs)",
      "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VP-OSAxwdgs",
      "retrieved_at": "2026-10-29T16:52:11Z",
      "result": "not_located",
      "detail": "847 segments. No remark about a software, SaaS, cloud or PPL tax. At 38:19-38:27 an alderman not named in the segments says 'if we're going to give them a tax increase? Because I heard numbers floating around about 10%.' with no tax type named."
    },
    {
      "source": "YouTube auto-generated transcript, Special Finance Committee 2026-10-22 (TAnkOqg4ElU)",
      "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAnkOqg4ElU",
      "retrieved_at": "2026-10-29T16:53:14Z",
      "result": "not_located",
      "detail": "869 segments. No remark about a software, SaaS, cloud or PPL tax; one Chicago mention concerns Law Department staffing."
    },
    {
      "source": "YouTube auto-generated transcript, Committee of the Whole 2026-10-20 (ov6KtFPgtHQ)",
      "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ov6KtFPgtHQ",
      "retrieved_at": "2026-10-29T16:55:32Z",
      "result": "not_located",
      "detail": "1,424 segments. Lease mentions concern City dark-fiber leases (26-0659, Onlight) and other leases; no software, SaaS or PPL tax."
    },
    {
      "source": "YouTube auto-generated transcript, Special City Council 2026-10-20 (nk_qCFhgg_w)",
      "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nk_qCFhgg_w",
      "retrieved_at": "2026-10-29T16:57:06Z",
      "result": "not_located",
      "detail": "153 segments. No tax remarks; 'digital' refers to the digital budget book."
    },
    {
      "source": "YouTube transcript, 'Summer Civics Series: Finalized Budget Town Hall' (0L6_r1r15q8, live 2026-09-26 19:35-21:29 UTC)",
      "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0L6_r1r15q8",
      "retrieved_at": "2026-10-29T17:00:52Z",
      "result": "failed",
      "detail": "Checked because Alderman Barreiro said at the 2026-10-27 Council meeting (1:18:11) 'I think you brought it up at the September 26 town hall.' The transcript panel opened twice (16:58Z and 17:00Z) but never loaded any segments, so the town hall was not checked."
    },
    {
      "source": "YouTube timedtext caption URL fetched with curl and in-page fetch",
      "url": "https://www.youtube.com/api/timedtext?v=Rd21quVqnz4&...&kind=asr&lang=en&fmt=json3",
      "retrieved_at": "2026-10-29T16:44:30Z",
      "result": "failed",
      "detail": "HTTP 200 with an empty body (0 bytes) by both methods; transcripts were read in the browser's transcript panel instead. Retrieval time approximate."
    },
    {
      "source": "City of Aurora 2027 Proposed Budget (PDF, 1,176 pages; budget message dated 2026-10-15)",
      "url": "https://www.aurora.il.us/files/sharedassets/mainsite/v/1/finance/documents/budget/2027-proposed-budget.pdf",
      "retrieved_at": "2026-10-29T16:36:05Z",
      "result": "not_located",
      "detail": "Text layer on 257 pages (including Section II Revenues, PDF pp. 49-279); 920 image-only pages read by OCR (macOS Vision). No revenue line, decision package or narrative for a software, SaaS, cloud or lease tax. Budget message p. i (PDF p. 9): 'we are evaluating potential revenue options, including a utility tax for high energy users like data centers.' Revenue lines include 101-0000-313.01-01 GROCERY TAX (2027 budget 4,314,000) and 101-1360-314.05-00 ENTERTAINMENT TAX (2026 original budget 400,000; 2027 budget 0). Decision package 'OpenGov Tax & Revenue' (Revenue & Collection, 2027 cost 78,000; PDF pp. 34, 524) is software the City would buy to administer local taxes."
    },
    {
      "source": "City of Aurora 2027 Proposed Budget PowerPoint (PPTX, 24 slides, incl. images, chart and SmartArt text)",
      "url": "https://www.aurora.il.us/files/sharedassets/mainsite/v/1/finance/documents/budget/2027-proposed-budget-presentation.pptx",
      "retrieved_at": "2026-10-29T16:35:57Z",
      "result": "not_located",
      "detail": "No software, SaaS or lease tax. Slide 9 lists 9 main General Fund revenue sources; slide 12 lists 'REDUCTION IN SOFTWARE USE' among 2026 deficit measures; timeline: departmental presentations 20 Oct-19 Nov, Finance Committee recommendation 19 Nov, Committee of the Whole 1 Dec, public hearing and City Council 8 Dec, tax levy 15 Dec 2026. The PPL slides shown on 2026-10-27 are not in this file."
    },
    {
      "source": "City news release 'City of Aurora Unveils 2027 Proposed Budget' (published 2026-10-26)",
      "url": "https://www.aurora.il.us/News-articles/City-of-Aurora-Unveils-2027-Proposed-Budget",
      "retrieved_at": "2026-10-29T16:35:57Z",
      "result": "not_located",
      "detail": "No software, SaaS or lease tax. Mentions 'Flip The Rate' (state legislation on utility taxes for data centers) and that 'the Mayor's Office continues to pursue progressive revenue options'."
    },
    {
      "source": "City news listing (aurora.il.us/News-articles)",
      "url": "https://www.aurora.il.us/News-articles",
      "retrieved_at": "2026-10-29T17:07:00Z",
      "result": "not_located",
      "detail": "Newest item is the 2026-10-26 budget release; no release on a lease, software or SaaS tax. A 2026-10-05 release 'Mayor Opposes 15% Water Rate Hike For Proposed TAP Program' concerns water rates for a proposed state program (saved as web/city/news_TAP-ProgramLaesch.html)."
    },
    {
      "source": "City Finance > Budget page",
      "url": "https://www.aurora.il.us/Government-and-Engagement/Finance/Budget",
      "retrieved_at": "2026-10-29T17:07:00Z",
      "result": "not_located",
      "detail": "Under '2027 Budget' only the 2027 Proposed Budget PDF is listed; no PPL presentation or revenue-options document."
    },
    {
      "source": "City ACTV page",
      "url": "https://www.aurora.il.us/Recreation-and-Amenities/Aurora-Community-Television-ACTV",
      "retrieved_at": "2026-10-29T17:08:00Z",
      "result": "not_located",
      "detail": "Links to the City's YouTube and Twitch channels and Watch Live; no separate on-demand archive. Twitch was not checked. Retrieval time approximate (read in the browser, not saved)."
    },
    {
      "source": "City Mayor's Office Staff page (for names and titles only)",
      "url": "https://www.aurora.il.us/Government-and-Engagement/Staff-Directory/Mayors-Office/Mayors-Office-Staff",
      "retrieved_at": "2026-10-29T17:13:40Z",
      "result": "located",
      "detail": "Lists John Laesch, Mayor; Shannon Cameron, Chief of Staff; Brian Caputo, Chief Operating Officer; Nicholas Richard-Thompson, Deputy Chief of Staff."
    },
    {
      "source": "Legistar API City Council office records (for council member names only)",
      "url": "https://webapi.legistar.com/v1/aurora-il/officerecords?$filter=OfficeRecordBodyId+eq+138+and+OfficeRecordEndDate+ge+datetime'2026-10-27T00:00:00'",
      "retrieved_at": "2026-10-29T17:13:53Z",
      "result": "located",
      "detail": "Current members: Carl Franco, Daniel Barreiro, Edward J. Bugg, Javier Bañuelos, Jonathan Núñez, Juany Garza, Keith Larson (Alderman-At-Large), Mike Saville, Patty Smith, Shweta Baid, Ted Mesiacos, Will White (Alderman-At-Large); John Laesch, Mayor."
    },
    {
      "source": "Illinois statutes (ilga.gov)",
      "url": "https://www.ilga.gov",
      "retrieved_at": null,
      "result": "not_located",
      "detail": "Not consulted. The presenter's statements about 2025 state taxation of tangible leases and home-rule authority are recorded as his statements and were not checked against statute."
    }
  ],
  "remarks": [
    {
      "meeting": "City Council, 2026-10-27 (Mayor's Report)",
      "event_id": 4791,
      "timestamp": "0:25:01",
      "speaker": "Mayor John Laesch (speaking from the dais seat behind the nameplate 'JOHN LAESCH / MAYOR', frame at 24:51; ASR elsewhere spells the name 'Lash')",
      "words": "uh, Deputy Chief Staff Nick Thompson will come up at the end because we want to talk about a a PPL tax and before spending any time or resources from the city so the council has an idea of what that looks like.",
      "source_url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUm_pgdi_4g&t=1501s"
    },
    {
      "meeting": "City Council, 2026-10-27 (Mayor's Report)",
      "event_id": 4791,
      "timestamp": "0:25:48",
      "speaker": "Mayor John Laesch (same passage)",
      "words": "Then we'll move to Deputy Chief of Staff uh Thompson talk about the PPL tax.",
      "source_url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUm_pgdi_4g&t=1548s"
    },
    {
      "meeting": "City Council, 2026-10-27 (Mayor's Report)",
      "event_id": 4791,
      "timestamp": "0:33:51",
      "speaker": "Mayor John Laesch (end of 'my portion of the budget presentation')",
      "words": "After CFO Peterson presents, I'll ask the deputy chief of staff, Nick Nick Thompson, to give us a short update on alternative revenue options. I'll pass it over to CFO Peterson.",
      "source_url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUm_pgdi_4g&t=2031s"
    },
    {
      "meeting": "City Council, 2026-10-27 (Mayor's Report)",
      "event_id": 4791,
      "timestamp": "0:54:10",
      "speaker": "Mayor John Laesch (frame at 54:14 shows the speaker behind the 'JOHN LAESCH / MAYOR' nameplate)",
      "words": "So the the reason we're looking at this is we're trying to find areas and ways that we can increase revenue without increasing property taxes. Um this is one of the options that Chicago has and I believe four other municipalities throughout the United States.",
      "source_url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUm_pgdi_4g&t=3250s"
    },
    {
      "meeting": "City Council, 2026-10-27 (Mayor's Report)",
      "event_id": 4791,
      "timestamp": "0:54:27",
      "speaker": "Deputy Chief of Staff, self-identified (ASR: 'Nicholas Rashard Thompson'; the City's Mayor's Office Staff page lists 'Nicholas Richard-Thompson, Deputy Chief of Staff')",
      "words": "Uh good evening council deputy chief of staff Nicholas Rashard Thompson. [clears throat] I have a brief presentation regarding new reh revenue streams.",
      "source_url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUm_pgdi_4g&t=3267s"
    },
    {
      "meeting": "City Council, 2026-10-27 (Mayor's Report)",
      "event_id": 4791,
      "timestamp": "0:54:50",
      "speaker": "Deputy Chief of Staff Nicholas Richard-Thompson",
      "words": "And that's how we decided on the PPL. Uh it is essentially a tax on the lease or rental of personal property within the city limits. Uh as the mayor stated, it is modeled off of Chicago's existing lease tax. They've had it for a decade.",
      "source_url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUm_pgdi_4g&t=3290s"
    },
    {
      "meeting": "City Council, 2026-10-27 (Mayor's Report)",
      "event_id": 4791,
      "timestamp": "0:55:07",
      "speaker": "Deputy Chief of Staff Nicholas Richard-Thompson",
      "words": "And the legal responsibility falls on the leases, those leasing the software with the leasers collecting and remitting. Uh the idea behind this tax is that it's kind of modernizing our tax base. It is primarily dominated by non-possessory kind of um leasing softwares. Uh and that's basically Salesforce, CRM, Adobe and kind of cloud softwares or SAS or softwares as a service. That's really what this tax is.",
      "source_url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUm_pgdi_4g&t=3307s"
    },
    {
      "meeting": "City Council, 2026-10-27 (Mayor's Report)",
      "event_id": 4791,
      "timestamp": "0:55:37",
      "speaker": "Deputy Chief of Staff Nicholas Richard-Thompson",
      "words": "And alongside vehicle and equipment rentals, ours would not include those and I'll get into later in the presentation why.",
      "source_url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUm_pgdi_4g&t=3337s"
    },
    {
      "meeting": "City Council, 2026-10-27 (Mayor's Report)",
      "event_id": 4791,
      "timestamp": "0:57:47",
      "speaker": "Deputy Chief of Staff Nicholas Richard-Thompson",
      "words": "In front of you is basically the more technical aspect of the tax. The taxable use again is cloud software access. So uh software as a service. The reason why we're exempting tangible property is because of preeemption. The state in 2025 began taxing that Chicago's exempted because they've been doing this particular tax on both tangible and int and and intangible uh kind of assets and they were exempted. But going forward, any municipality has home rule to do this tax. You would not want to double tax people because the tax the state is already taxing physical assets.",
      "source_url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUm_pgdi_4g&t=3467s"
    },
    {
      "meeting": "City Council, 2026-10-27 (Mayor's Report)",
      "event_id": 4791,
      "timestamp": "0:58:18",
      "speaker": "Deputy Chief of Staff Nicholas Richard-Thompson",
      "words": "liability, the lease is legally responsible for the tax. So what does that look like? The lease legally owes the tax. The vendor, the leaser is legally required to collect and send it to the city. Uh because the tax relies on where the property is used, it functions like a use tax, but it's a lease tax on their rental property. The tax applies when the lease uses property or intangibles in Aurora, even if the lender is outside of the city.",
      "source_url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUm_pgdi_4g&t=3498s"
    },
    {
      "meeting": "City Council, 2026-10-27 (Mayor's Report)",
      "event_id": 4791,
      "timestamp": "0:59:15",
      "speaker": "Deputy Chief of Staff Nicholas Richard-Thompson",
      "words": "It's really uh looking like a tax is added to a line item on the invoice. If a software subscription, say costs $100 and the tax rate was 15%, the local business pays 115 to Adobe. Adobe is not going to take on the tax.",
      "source_url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUm_pgdi_4g&t=3555s"
    },
    {
      "meeting": "City Council, 2026-10-27 (Mayor's Report)",
      "event_id": 4791,
      "timestamp": "0:59:49",
      "speaker": "Deputy Chief of Staff Nicholas Richard-Thompson",
      "words": "Additionally, so this these are a couple of examples. Um and we ran some preliminary numbers to share kind of the different um outcomes of the tax. Uh as the mayor mentioned, we did preliminary kind of cursory overview of this. Uh what we would want to do is if the council wants to investigate further uh we would work with staff to bring uh numbers uh back uh on this, but it would require a lot of staff time.",
      "source_url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUm_pgdi_4g&t=3589s"
    },
    {
      "meeting": "City Council, 2026-10-27 (Mayor's Report)",
      "event_id": 4791,
      "timestamp": "1:00:31",
      "speaker": "Deputy Chief of Staff Nicholas Richard-Thompson (while the slide 'Chicago collections show a growing tax base' was displayed)",
      "words": "and uh despite keeping it at 9% in 2022 and in 2024, they still saw an increase in revenue um because it's following the economic trend. So again, this is really modernizing our tax base.",
      "source_url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUm_pgdi_4g&t=3631s"
    },
    {
      "meeting": "City Council, 2026-10-27 (Mayor's Report)",
      "event_id": 4791,
      "timestamp": "1:00:48",
      "speaker": "Deputy Chief of Staff Nicholas Richard-Thompson",
      "words": "Um an example that I would use, let's say our taxable base of this would be 25 million. It would generate 250,000 annually at 1%, 500,000 at 2%, and 1.25 million at 5%. modestly clearly under what Chicago is taxing, right? Chicago is a different landscape, different economy, vastly different population. So, this is not one to ones obviously.",
      "source_url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUm_pgdi_4g&t=3648s"
    },
    {
      "meeting": "City Council, 2026-10-27 (Mayor's Report)",
      "event_id": 4791,
      "timestamp": "1:01:56",
      "speaker": "Deputy Chief of Staff Nicholas Richard-Thompson",
      "words": "One is a sunset clause to do it for a year look at the tax and see uh after we've gathered and generated kind of how the the tax operates and functions um deciding in a year do you want to continue it. The other one is other exemptions for the tax, right?",
      "source_url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUm_pgdi_4g&t=3716s"
    },
    {
      "meeting": "City Council, 2026-10-27 (Mayor's Report)",
      "event_id": 4791,
      "timestamp": "1:02:33",
      "speaker": "Mayor John Laesch (frame at 1:02:42 shows the speaker behind the 'JOHN LAESCH / MAYOR' nameplate)",
      "words": "So, so just to be clear, this is going to take a to to explore this further is going to take a significant amount of staff time, legal, finance. Uh, our finance department is is pretty preoccupied right now with the budget. Um, and I believe uh that uh CFO Peterson has said that it would uh probably require a new staff position within finance to administer uh this new tax, but we h don't have any realistic projections as to what it would generate",
      "source_url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUm_pgdi_4g&t=3753s"
    },
    {
      "meeting": "City Council, 2026-10-27 (Mayor's Report)",
      "event_id": 4791,
      "timestamp": "1:03:52",
      "speaker": "Mayor John Laesch (continuing)",
      "words": "So, this is one of the options. Uh we're willing to investigate it further, but I want to um understand from the council, I don't want to put a bunch of staff time into this and then find out that we're not going to uh move forward because the the council thinks this is not a good idea. So, I'd like to keep the conversation just focused on the PPL.",
      "source_url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUm_pgdi_4g&t=3832s"
    },
    {
      "meeting": "City Council, 2026-10-27 (Mayor's Report)",
      "event_id": 4791,
      "timestamp": "1:06:43",
      "speaker": "Deputy Chief of Staff Nicholas Richard-Thompson (answering a council member not named in the segments)",
      "words": "Yeah. So on a technical level, what happens is when you log on to say Salesforce, uh you have a zip code, right? And Salesforce already does this with Chicago. So they would imprint and what it would look like is when they get their receipt the business it would show an itemized uh target that might say Aurora personal property tax and would show how much you So, it might be like $15 on top of the hundred you might pay for Salesforce.",
      "source_url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUm_pgdi_4g&t=4003s"
    },
    {
      "meeting": "City Council, 2026-10-27 (Mayor's Report)",
      "event_id": 4791,
      "timestamp": "1:11:14",
      "speaker": "Alderman-At-Large Keith Larson (recognized as 'Alderman Larson')",
      "words": "Uh yeah, I just want to provide a bit of background because I work at a SAS company. Um, I I think a lot of companies are going to be reliant on SAS going into the future.",
      "source_url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUm_pgdi_4g&t=4274s"
    },
    {
      "meeting": "City Council, 2026-10-27 (Mayor's Report)",
      "event_id": 4791,
      "timestamp": "1:12:48",
      "speaker": "Deputy Chief of Staff Nicholas Richard-Thompson (answering Alderman Daniel Barreiro, recognized as 'Alderman Barrow')",
      "words": "I primarily just looked at the state and like what states have passed it. Um New York, Texas, and Washington have passed uh software as a service kind of just general taxes.",
      "source_url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUm_pgdi_4g&t=4368s"
    },
    {
      "meeting": "City Council, 2026-10-27 (Mayor's Report)",
      "event_id": 4791,
      "timestamp": "1:14:36",
      "speaker": "Chief Financial Officer Stacey Peterson (self-identified; ASR 'Stacy')",
      "words": "Um Stacy Peterson, chief financial officer. um with this uh particular tax uh seeing how that we would have to then also collect it on our own. It wouldn't be collected through um any form of the state like how they collect uh home rule sales tax force and sales tax. So we would have to do that on our own um which would require um a a software uh to maintain and then also um monitoring of it. And we would need I would say roughly probably one other additional staff uh to maintain this particular um uh tax if it was implemented.",
      "source_url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUm_pgdi_4g&t=4476s"
    },
    {
      "meeting": "City Council, 2026-10-27 (Mayor's Report)",
      "event_id": 4791,
      "timestamp": "1:15:46",
      "speaker": "Alderman Ted Mesiacos (recognized as 'Alman Messakos')",
      "words": "How's this straightforward, straight to the punch? Is this to be considered in the budget? Is this where you want to is this where it's going for the 2027 where the budget where if we collect the money where it going go to the general fund I imagine no no but is it going to be part of this consideration for this budget that we're discussing right now in finance",
      "source_url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUm_pgdi_4g&t=4546s"
    },
    {
      "meeting": "City Council, 2026-10-27 (Mayor's Report)",
      "event_id": 4791,
      "timestamp": "1:16:02",
      "speaker": "Mayor John Laesch (reply; frame at 1:16:12 shows the speaker behind the 'JOHN LAESCH / MAYOR' nameplate)",
      "words": "a as of right now uh we have not included it because we haven't done adequate analysis the question I'm asking the council tonight okay is should we invest the time because it's a significant amount of time to determine how much it would uh generate in new revenue uh to determine if it's even worth doing.",
      "source_url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUm_pgdi_4g&t=4562s"
    },
    {
      "meeting": "City Council, 2026-10-27 (Mayor's Report)",
      "event_id": 4791,
      "timestamp": "1:18:03",
      "speaker": "Alderman Daniel Barreiro (recognized as 'Alderman Barrero')",
      "words": "No, I I just wanted to comment. Um, this this came up. I think you brought it up at the September 26 town hall. Is that correct? Cor correct. Yeah. Yeah. So, you guys known about this a while. Um, and if you need more time, you know, this this could be considered in the for the 2028 budget.",
      "source_url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUm_pgdi_4g&t=4683s"
    },
    {
      "meeting": "City Council, 2026-10-27 (Mayor's Report)",
      "event_id": 4791,
      "timestamp": "1:21:16",
      "speaker": "Alderman Carl Franco (recognized as 'Alderman Franco')",
      "words": "well we don't know what the high end's going to be. We don't know if we're going to make 100,000 or 10 million. That's shocking to me that we don't have a ballpark. ... So, I I would just say we put it off. Potentially good idea, but we need a whole lot more information.",
      "source_url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUm_pgdi_4g&t=4876s"
    },
    {
      "meeting": "City Council, 2026-10-27 (Mayor's Report)",
      "event_id": 4791,
      "timestamp": "1:21:55",
      "speaker": "Alderman-At-Large Keith Larson (recognized as 'Alderman Larson')",
      "words": "Well, I I think the the question here is uh whether we look into this and it seems like a lot of people are saying we need to look into this more. So yes, I say we look into it more.",
      "source_url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUm_pgdi_4g&t=4915s"
    },
    {
      "meeting": "City Council, 2026-10-27 (Mayor's Report)",
      "event_id": 4791,
      "timestamp": "1:22:09",
      "speaker": "Alderman-At-Large Will White (recognized as 'Alman White')",
      "words": "I think yeah definitely we should look into it and explore and I assume a part of that exploration would be reaching out to the business community and understanding what the total amount in revenue [clears throat] we would receive how much that individual person would cost us.",
      "source_url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUm_pgdi_4g&t=4929s"
    },
    {
      "meeting": "City Council, 2026-10-27 (Mayor's Report)",
      "event_id": 4791,
      "timestamp": "1:23:30",
      "speaker": "Alderwoman Patty Smith (recognized as 'Ottawa Smith' in the ASR)",
      "words": "This was a very high level presentation. Not a lot of facts or details in it, um to really make any type of decision. Never hurts to get more uh information, but I can guarantee you one thing I've never done is I've never woke up and said I want to be like more like Chicago.",
      "source_url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUm_pgdi_4g&t=5010s"
    },
    {
      "meeting": "City Council, 2026-10-27 (Mayor's Report)",
      "event_id": 4791,
      "timestamp": "1:24:22",
      "speaker": "Alderman Edward J. Bugg (recognized as 'Alman Bug')",
      "words": "Yeah. If you could just uh the mayor said few months if we could zero in on a date and three months from now end of January if you had some updated information I think that would be a a decent time frame. um you know, not looking at adding a new person, but just getting more information, seeing where we're at, and uh getting a comparable uh less than 300,000 population.",
      "source_url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUm_pgdi_4g&t=5062s"
    },
    {
      "meeting": "City Council, 2026-10-27 (Mayor's Report)",
      "event_id": 4791,
      "timestamp": "1:25:04",
      "speaker": "Council member recognized as 'Alman Bait' in the ASR and thanked as 'alderwoman' (the current roster includes Alderwoman Shweta Baid; not verified)",
      "words": "Um thank you, mayor. I was also thinking on the similar lines. So if we can have date comparison data from similar size municipalities if they're utilizing this type of tax and also how much is will be the cost for that additional staff software and system setup if we can compare that and see it'll be easier for us to see the revenue versus expenditure.",
      "source_url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUm_pgdi_4g&t=5104s"
    },
    {
      "meeting": "City Council, 2026-10-27 (Mayor's Report)",
      "event_id": 4791,
      "timestamp": "1:25:33",
      "speaker": "Mayor John Laesch (frame at 1:25:37 shows the speaker behind the 'JOHN LAESCH / MAYOR' nameplate)",
      "words": "Thank you. Well, the the situation that the the city's in is one where nobody wants to make further cuts or deeper cuts and nobody wants to uh raise taxes in the in the cycle that we're in. Uh so this is one of the options that might close the gap. We don't know if it will or won't. Uh we'll explore more. Thank you for the presentation.",
      "source_url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUm_pgdi_4g&t=5133s"
    }
  ],
  "proposal": {
    "what_exists": "A presentation of a possible tax, shown to the City Council on 2026-10-27 during the Mayor's Report. No written proposal, ordinance, resolution, memo or slide file was located in Legistar, Granicus or on the City website; the fields below come from the slides as displayed in the City's YouTube recording (frames saved in evidence/software-tax/browser-captures/frames/). Spoken-only statements are labelled as such.",
    "name_on_slides": "Personal Property Lease Transaction Tax (slide 1, frame 55:02). Speakers called it the 'PPL' or 'PPL tax'.",
    "tax_base": "Slide 2 'What the tax does': 'An excise on the lease or rental of personal property used within the city'; 'TAXABLE USE: Cloud software access. Aurora would Exempt tangible property (only SaaS)'.",
    "rate": null,
    "rate_note": "No rate appears on the slides captured (slides 1, 2, 4 and 5). Spoken only: 15% as an invoice example ('If a software subscription, say costs $100 and the tax rate was 15%, the local business pays 115 to Adobe', 59:22); illustrative yields at 1%, 2% and 5% on an assumed taxable base of $25 million (1:00:48). Slide 4 shows rates for Chicago, not Aurora.",
    "who_pays": "Slide 2: 'LIABILITY: The lessee is legally responsible for the tax.' 'COLLECTION: The lessor collects the tax and remits it to the City.'",
    "exemptions": "Slide 2: 'Exempt Entities: Government bodies, public schools, and certified charitable, educational, or religious organizations.' Spoken only: possible further exemptions (for example a person working alone or a small operation; remote workers who are never in Aurora) and a possible one-year sunset clause, offered as options for the council (1:01:56, 1:07:01, 1:07:56).",
    "effective_date": null,
    "effective_date_note": "No effective date stated on the slides or in the remarks captured.",
    "projected_revenue": "Slide 4: 'Aurora revenue remains illustrative until locally modeled'; 'AURORA OUTLOOK: Potentially significant. Could create recurring revenue for municipal infrastructure and services without increasing residential property taxes.' No Aurora revenue figure on the slides. Spoken only: $250,000 / $500,000 / $1.25 million at 1% / 2% / 5% of an assumed $25 million base (1:00:48); the Mayor said 'we h don't have any realistic projections as to what it would generate' (1:02:56).",
    "presenter": "Nicholas Richard-Thompson, Deputy Chief of Staff (name as listed on the City's Mayor's Office Staff page; self-identified in the ASR as 'Nicholas Rashard Thompson').",
    "introduced_by": "Mayor John Laesch, during the Mayor's Report (24:36-25:56, 33:51, 54:10).",
    "administration_cost_statement": "CFO Stacey Peterson (1:14:36): the City would collect the tax itself, would need software and monitoring, and 'roughly probably one other additional staff'.",
    "legislative_status": "discussion",
    "legislative_status_detail": "Informational presentation during the Mayor's Report, City Council meeting of 2026-10-27. No agenda item, Legistar matter, ordinance, resolution, committee referral or vote located. The Mayor said it had not been included in the 2027 budget (1:16:02) and asked whether staff should spend time investigating it; council members asked for more information (comparable cities, business impact, staffing cost) and Alderman Bugg suggested updated information by the end of January; the Mayor closed with 'we'll explore more' (1:25:33). The 2027 Proposed Budget PDF contains no such revenue line.",
    "slide_dates": "The footer of slide 4 appears to read 'October 19, 2026' (small text in the video frame).",
    "other_jurisdictions_on_slides": "Slide 4: 'CHICAGO COLLECTIONS ($M)': 2020 $344.1M / 7.25%; 2022 $602.3M / 9%; 2024 $701.3M / 9%; 2025 $936.7M / 11%. Slide 5 'Other Considerations': Denver and other Colorado home-rule municipalities apply local sales tax treatment to SaaS; Phoenix and other Arizona home-rule municipalities apply a transaction privilege tax to the rental of tangible personal property; New York, Texas and Washington include SaaS within their state sales tax systems. These are the presenter's figures and descriptions of other governments; none was checked against those governments' records."
  }
}