No move afoot to reinstate occupational license tax
BROOKSVILLE –
Tax Collector Juanita Sikes said she still gets four or five phone calls a month from people who want to apply for a county occupational license to open their business.
When she reminds them Hernando County repealed its occupational license tax in October 2007, they are generally pleased, Sikes said.
Sikes, who pushed for the repeal back then, said she realizes county commissioners are looking in every cranny trying to find income sources. But reinstating what she calls the “cumbersome, outdated” occupational ordinance should not be one of them, she said.
And County Commissioner Dave Russell agrees it will likely not be part of the discussion this budget year.
“It was costing more to collect the tax than it was bringing money in,” Russell said. “(Repealing it) was the right thing to do then, and it’s the right thing to continue to do.”
Sikes spearheaded the move to repeal the tax because the costs of administering it outweighed any financial gain for the county.
Not only was the ordinance confusing to the public, but it is difficult to enforce, according to Sikes.
Sikes said the occupational license confused many people who thought its issuance to a business or service provider somehow was a guarantee of competency. All it meant was the person paid the annual tax, which varied depending on the type of business or service.
The state Legislature in 2006 changed the name of the license to a “local business tax receipt,” in the hopes of clarifying its purpose.
The cost of an occupation license at the time ranged from $9 to $150 and Hernando County typically netted about $39,000 annually from the proceeds.
Prior to its repeal, the county issued between 12,000 and 14,000 occupational licenses and 99 percent of them were in the $9 to $11 category, Sikes said.
“It was truly not worth it,” she said.
Sikes said she eliminated two full-time positions during the last two years and took other employees who managed the occupational licenses and trained them in additional areas, which kept her from hiring more employees.
Sikes, who has 36 full-time positions, including herself, has a budget of $2.1 million for fiscal year 2009-10.
Florida statutes do not require counties to issue occupational licenses, or – as they are now called – local business tax receipts.
Sikes said occupational licenses don’t protect consumers on the “front-end” of a business transaction from unscrupulous people. If consumers get “burned” in a transaction, they have recourse to hire an attorney or take a business to small claims court, she said.
But those options were there when the county did have such an ordinance. Just having an ordinance didn’t provide consumers with an extra layer of protection or security, she said.
Barbara Good, assistant tax collector in Citrus County, said there are no plans to do away with the occupational tax in her county.
Citrus County has a basic charge of $25 for an occupational license and there are about 8,000 filed with the county at this time, Good said.
In fiscal year 2008-09, Good said she collected $228,704 from the tax. After deducting the cost of the fee, the tax collector turned over to the board of county commissioners $194,993, she said.
“So it’s still quite a substantial amount we’re turning over to the board each year,” she said, noting that the county’s charges are higher than Hernando’s.
Reporter Michael D. Bates can be reached at 352-544-5290 or [email protected].
