The controversial employee head tax proposal may soon make a comeback, but with a few changes.

Ald. Ann Rainey (8th) presented a proposal at Monday’s Administration and Public Works Committee meeting for a new version of the tax. Unlike the previous plan, which targeted only businesses with more than 1,000 employees, Rainey’s plan would create a $5 per month tax on each employee for businesses with only five or more employees.

The previous plan drew criticism last January because it targeted only three nonprofit employers: Northwestern University, St. Francis Hospital and Evanston Hospital. City Council tabled the issue last year and again abandoned discussion this year after a vote to remove it from the table failed at the Jan. 28 Administration and Public Works meeting.

Rainey said the new proposal addressed concerns that the tax singled out certain nonprofits by affecting a broader base of businesses.

“It spreads the burden through the entire business community,” Rainey said. “Those who pay taxes and those who don’t.”

When she set out to make the proposal, Rainey originally wanted to include a stipulation that would allow employers to get a credit for property tax paid. But she abandoned the idea after constitutional concerns from the city legal staff.

Herbert D. Hill, the city’s first assistant corporation counsel, said the city could be at risk for lawsuits by instituting a credit not related to employees. No other community with a head tax uses such a credit, and it could create problems of nonprofit organizations that do not pay property tax and would therefore not get a credit.

“If an entity did not pay property tax, a credit would be of little value to that entity,” Hill said.

NU is the largest employer and property owner in Evanston but does not pay property tax because of an exemption in its 1851 charter. The university also opposed the previous head tax proposal.

Ald. Lionel Jean-Baptiste (2nd) said at the meeting he was not ready to support the head tax proposal but was interested in opening up dialogue with nonprofits. At Monday’s council meeting he introduced a plan to establish a liaison committee to create a structured attempt at getting nonprofits to negotiate as requested by the city’s successful March 2000 Fair Share referendum.

“I think it’s an appropriate call at this time to see if we can get nonprofits involved in any way that they can,” Jean-Baptiste said.