Business license ordinance passes

By Leigh Anne Butler

The Tallassee City Council voted Tuesday to update the business license fee structure. This comes after Ordinance 2007-426 was originally tabled at the July 26 city council meeting. A public forum was held on Aug. 6 to allow local business owners to address the mayor and council with questions and concerns regarding the proposed structure of future rates.

The ordinance passed with a 5-3 vote, with Jeremy Taunton (Ward 1), Linda Mosher (Ward 2) and Fred Randall Hughey (Ward 7) voting no.

Business license fees for the City of Tallassee will be computed as either a gross receipts-based license or a flat rate license. Beginning in January 2025, gross-receipts-based businesses will be divided into the following categories: manufacturing, retail/rental, wholesale dealers, automotive dealers/lessors, mining, professional and repair/maintenance. Caps will be applied to some of these categories for the next three years, with the anticipation that no caps will be in place for any categories beginning in 2028.

With the approved fee schedule, a retail business within the city will be charged a rate of 1/20th of all gross receipts (with a minimum license fee of $100). There will be a license cap of $5,000 in 2025, with no caps applied after 2026.

For a manufacturing business making less than $250,000, the business license fee will be $200. For those making between $250,000 and $1 million, it will be $200 plus 1/20th of 1% of all receipts between $250,000 and $1 million. For those making over $1 million, the fee will be $575 plus 1/40th of 1% of all receipts over $1 million. There will be a license cap of $1,000 in 2025, and $2,000 in 2026 and 2027.

“I feel like we need a strong relationship with the local business owners to maintain a strong, caring city,” Councilman Jeremy Taunton stated. “The fact is the city didn’t get this way overnight and we aren’t going to fix this overnight. We can all agree the license should go up, however I can’t in good faith agree with this proposal. We have been behind the eight ball for over 20 years, and we have done a fantastic job with the utility rates, increasing the tax for the new school and the ad valorem tax. We have to show the business owners we are willing to negotiate within reason on a suitable amount.”

“Nothing has been done since 2007,” Tallassee mayor, Sarah Hill explained at the public forum held last week. “That’s the issue. Had we’d addressed this in 2007 and said, hey, we need to go up a little bit at a time, but we’ve had 17 years of stagnant rates.

“We need to work on something to get us where we need to be and this is where we’ve identified. I have other plans that will hopefully come down the pike on some other things dealing with infrastructure and industry but we’re not there yet. We are trying to take things one step at a time.”

“What we are trying to do is make up for lost time,” Bill Godwin added when addressing business owners at the public forum. “I’ve been on the council, when I get off next year, for 16 years so I know for a fact that nothing was done as far as revenue and keeping up with costs for most of these years.”

Hill also noted, “The good news is this is tax deductible. It is a normal cost of doing business. You’re paying less money to the state and less money to the federal government and it’s staying here in Tallassee. Business licenses are tax deductible on your federal income taxes so that money will stay here rather than going to the state where I have to fight with 50 other cities our size for grants.” A list of all City of Tallassee ordinances can be found on the city’s website. For details on this ordinance, you can contact the city clerk, Whitney Moon Pitchford at (334) 283-6571 or cityclerk@tallassee-al.gov.