Another group representing Corvallis business has lined up against a planned license fee for doing business here.

The Corvallis Independent Business Alliance on Tuesday announced that results from a poll of its 100 members led the group’s leadership to oppose charging business for promoting itself.

“The business-license fee was originally suggested to be a nominal fee to inventory local business,” said CIBA President Pat Sardell. “This item has been hijacked and modeled into a much bigger issue, one which threatens to erode the precarious trust the business community has in the city.”

The group heard from 56 of 100 members. Of those, 70 percent opposed a license fee and 59 percent felt it would be unfair to them.

“There’s a bit of animosity out there that this is just another layer to make it harder to do business here,” Sardell said.

Plans for a business-license fee originally came from the now-disbanded Downtown and Economic Vitality Plans Implementation Committee, which was given the job of deciding how to raise money to pay for the programs recommended by “Prosperity that Fits,” a plan designed to build targeted economic prosperity in Corvallis.

The committee considered a range of taxes on hotel rooms and entertainment before opting to charge a business-license fee. That plan was supported by the City Council.

As proposed so far, businesses would be charged $50 annually for one to nine employees, $175 for 10 to 19, $275 for 20 to 49 and $1,000 for 50 or more.

The $250,000 target for yearly collections from the fee is targeted for programs outlined by the Prosperity that Fits plan. These include business incubation and support services, promoting growth in specific industries and hiring a business-retention specialist to work on behalf of the city.

The Corvallis-Benton Chamber Coalition has issued qualified support for the fee, as long as the $1,000 cap remains, that the fee eventually goes away, that business selects how funds are allocated, that nonprofit organizations also are also charged, that out-of-town businesses not be given an unfair advantage and that city programs compete on par with others for funding.

The Downtown Corvallis Association began soliciting a survey to its members late Tuesday asking for input before the next meeting of the Business License Committee on Thursday.

Sardell said the rate structure is a prime sticking point for her organization of local businesses, with the big jump in cost at the 50-employee mark and relative low ceiling for the city’s largest employers.

CIBA Vice President Bob Baird said members expressed general support for programs to enhance the visibility of local companies, but objected to using a licensing system as a way to raise funds.

“I don’t think the city quite grasps the feeling in the business community on this,” he said. “What’s universal is opposition to the fee: collecting money.”

Sardell agreed.

“The nature of our organization is to support local business,” she said. “For us, this is a perplexing problem.”

Local real-estate agents have also stepped up opposition, arguing that their business draws agents from all over the valley to list and show houses intermittently.

The Willamette Association of Realtors in May formally announced opposition to the fee that, they say, could cause an enforcement nightmare for them and other businesses, such as home-based and Internet businesses that might be based in town, but which do business in far-flung locales.

Real-estate agents are part of a committee charged with creating a plan for the fee. Other stakeholders include members of CIBA, the Corvallis-Benton Chamber Coalition, Downtown Corvallis Association, local nonprofits and high-tech companies.

When the business-fee committee was formed early this summer, Mayor Charlie Tomlinson stressed:

“This is an implementation group, not a decision on whether to have a business fee.”

Ward 1 City Councilor Bill York has repeatedly told the committee that the decision of whether to impose a license fee has already been decided and the job of the group is to decide how to fairly impose the charge.

The committee also has planned a public meeting to present its implementation plan at 7 p.m. Sept. 11.

If you go

WHAT: Business License Fee Committee meeting

WHEN: 4 p.m. Thursday

WHERE: Madison Avenue Meeting Room, 500 S.W. Madison Ave.

Matt Neznanski can be reached at 758-9518 or matt.neznanski@lee.net.