Cupertino in California, home of Apple Inc., backed down from a proposal for a per-employee tax on big companies, after opposition from local businesses and a direct appeal from Apple to consider alternatives.
The Cupertino city council late Tuesday voted against putting the measure to voters in November, parting paths with the nearby city of Mountain View, where Alphabet Inc.’s Google is based. The Mountain View council voted unanimously last month to put the same type of tax on the ballot, and Cupertino had modeled its tax...