Friday, December 7, 2001
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Friday, December 7, 2001 |
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The cost of business is going up in Coweta By JOHN
THOMPSON
Business owners in Coweta County will pay bigger fees for business licenses after action by the County Commission Tuesday. Commissioners voted to up the fees by nearly 50 percent in all three business classes and remove the maximum cap that a business can pay. Business License Director Eva Wagner told the commissioners that fees had not been raised since the early 1990s. When she started doing a comparison of other counties, she realized Coweta's fees were extremely low. The current fee is 25 cents per $1,000 in gross receipts for businesses in group one; 30 cents per $1,000 in group two and 35 cents per $1,000 in group three. The approved fees would raise the rate to 50 cents in group one, 62.5 cents in group two and 75 cents in group three. The administrative fee rises to $35 from $25 and the maximum cap on a business license is eliminated. The cap was at $3,000. Wagner said the increase in fees would still keep the county in the lower rung of counties for business fees. Commissioner Jim McGuffey supported raising the fees, but postponed the vote until the afternoon when Wagner could give him more information about how she chose to raise the figures. "This is a tax, and you're doubling people's taxes. I just want more information," he said. Wagner said he tried to keep the figures similar to what other counties had and went with an average figure.
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