City Of Wetumpka Wants Compromise To Adjust Business License Fees
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An exclusive story tonight from Wetumpka — businesses can breathe a sigh of relief after the city changed the business license fee last month, which hiked up the fee for most businesses. Now, city leaders are saying they dropped the ball on that decision– and they’re coming up with a solution that involves making adjustments to business license fees. “We understand that we made a mistake,” Said Wetumpka Mayor, Jerry Willis, who is talking about the decision to approve a change of structure in business license fees that happened early December. The change was recommended by the League of Municipalities and is affecting $2,700 businesses in Wetumpka, including Sharon Brooks’, who owns the Vault Variety Shop. “We’re already paying so much. Did we even have a meeting about this? How come we weren’t notified?” Said Brooks. Under the last city ordinance, she was paying about $85 a year. Now, she says she’ll have to pay at least $300. Larry Strichik, the owner of Boomer T’s Barbeque Garage, is only paying about $100 — at least for now. “Next year, I wont catch a break,” Said Strichik. “It kind of wants to make you not do as much business as you think you could, in one way, because you’re thinking, ‘if I do all this work and bust my hump, then they’re going to take more taxes from me?'” Mayor Willis says he’s received several complaints from businesses. Now the city is trying to come up with a solution… “We want to be able to make an adjustment to them. As long as we’re fair across the board with everyone and every classification then we’re not outside the law on this.” Mayor Willis says he hopes to have a more precise plan on the business license fees within the next week. Then that plan will have to go before the next city council meeting to be approved. Willis also hopes to extend the fee’s due date from February 15 to May, however that won’t be decided until the next council meeting on January 20th at 6 p.m. Until then, if you have questions about your fee, call the business license office at 567-1301.
