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Show IIov; Ve Sec It: At the September 5 City Council meeting, meet-ing, a piece of legislation which has been floating around city hall for about a year came to light again. It consists of a new business license tax. The proposed legislation, if passed by the Council, would levy a tax of either one quarter or one half of' one percent on all gross income received by Park City businesses. Gross income was described as the total amount received in money, credits or otherwise. other-wise. We have to take exception to this. With rising costs at wholesale levels over head is also going up. To tax gross proceeds before any overhead over-head or expense allowance is quite unfair. In the instance of a high overheadlow profit margin business this would be an incredible in-credible burden. Say, for instance, a super market with a one to two percent profit margin to pay one-fourth of that for a business busi-ness license would probably drive them out of business. The draft of the bill is also vague. It makes no exceptions save for non-profit organizations. How will the banks be assessed? asses-sed? On the basis of clearings? What about the real estate businesses? Often they have incredible cash flows with a small commission. commis-sion. Under this tax they may be paying as much as 10 percent of their total income. This tax will discourage business rather rath-er than cultivate it. Everybody loses. Granted the city needs more money to operate more efficiently but the methods in this proposed tax are in question. Some recommendations: 1) investigate the cash flow from the county. We should study all available sources of county and federal revenue available to Park City. 2) Study the rate currently charged for a business license. Most businessmen would be more than willing to go along with this. 3) Instigate a right to work tax whereby people who do not live or own property in Park City but work here would be required to pay a quarterly tax on say $25.00. This could even be expanded to include all people who work here whereby residents would pay $5.00 per quarter. There are an awful lot of people who work here but never spend a dime in Park City. Another suggestion might be a similar tax but on net profit rather than gross income thus alleviating the burden of a gross income tax. Granted many people with low profits might be paying less than thev are now but the businesses with large profits would be paying more. We urge all interested parties to attend the special open meetingThursday, September Septem-ber 12 at 7p.m.inCity Hall. This matter will be discussed and the City Council is open to your suggestions. |