Redwood City Council Considers Raising Business License Fees

City council members will meet today, Monday, May 23, 2011 to decide if they should ask residents to vote on raising business license taxes on the November 8, 2011 ballots.. City officials estimate that increased business license fees would amount to an additional $825,000 revenue each year. Since the city is dealing with a projected $2.6 million budget deficit for next year, this is an attractive way of helping to close the gap.

Council members are also considering raising hotel occupancy taxes.

The last time business license fees were increased was in July of 1994. Current cost for a business license is an annual $37.00 per business. Suggested increase would raise the fee by 16.7 percent for the next three years amounting to $59.00 by the third year.

City officials fear the anti-tax sentiment in residents that caused them to vote down the proposed business license tax increase two years ago.

According to Mercury News, Redwood City Mayor Jeff Ira said he hopes voters will approve the taxes because most residents wouldn't have to pay them, yet benefit from the additional revenue.

"These are not really direct taxes, so you think if we can show them why it's beneficial to the city, they might be voting for it," he said. "Taxes are a funny thing, as you can see from the last election. It's a challenge; it's about education, convincing people that it's something we really need."

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