By Matt Neznanski
Gazette-Times reporter | Posted: Saturday, September 6, 2008 12:00 am
Will 'Prosperity that Fits' plan suffer?
A city committee shaping details of a business-license fee to pay for economic prosperity programs was swamped with people sharply opposed to the idea, who argued that the city should find another way to pay for its programs.
The Business License Fee Committee met Thursday, part of a series of sessions that have addressed the proposed fee's administrative issues, rates and structure.
"We had about an hour of public comment. Most was opposed," said Ward 1 City Councilor Bill York, who heads the committee. "The underlying theme is to pay for this out of the general fund."
Over the past month, business reception for being solely responsible for funding "Prosperity that Fits," a plan designed to build targeted economic prosperity in Corvallis, has soured.
Just this week, the Corvallis Independent Business Alliance announced that results from a poll of its 100 members led the group's leadership to oppose charging business for promoting itself. The Corvallis-Benton Chamber Coalition still supports a business fee, but has indicated that its approval may be waning.
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
York said the group did turn a corner on the proposed fee's rate structure, a major sticking point for small business.
As originally proposed, fees started at $50 annually for one to nine employees, then grew to $175 for 10 to 19, $275 for 20 to 49 and $1,000 for 50 or more.
Now, a base $50 fee would be charged for all businesses, with an additional $12 per employee up to $1,000.
If business owners object to funding programs, however, it's not clear that the new rates will fare any better, leaving Mayor Charlie Tomlinson to worry about squeezing PTF into the city's general fund budget.
"If the business community says we don't support a business license fee and it goes back on property-tax dollars, then economic development has to compete with the library, public safety and everything else," he said. "Frankly, I don't think that's where you want it, either."
But CIBA this week argued that the license fee committee's membership doesn't take local business owners into account.
Perhaps conspicuously absent on the stakeholder committee are three organizations that represent business interests in town: the Corvallis Independent Business Alliance, The Corvallis-Benton Chamber Coalition and the Downtown Corvallis Association.
Kate Lindburg, membership chairwoman for CIBA, said her organization submitted two names for consideration but neither was appointed by Tomlinson.
"They were deliberately not put on the committee, and now they're being told they can't be on it," Lindburg said.
The Willamette Association of Realtors in May formally announced opposition to the fee that, its leaders 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.
Two real-estate agents - Amanda Dalton, representing the Realtors association and Liz Foster of REMAX-Integrity - are part of the 10-member stakeholder committee.
Others on the committee are Judy Corwin of the Corvallis Clinic, Elizabeth French of CH2M Hill, Jennifer Moore of the United Way and Larry Plotkin and Curtis Wright, both independent businessmen. City Councilors Bill York of Ward 1, Dan Brown of Ward 3 and Jeanne Raymond of Ward 7 round out the committee.
Tomlinson admits that retail business was overlooked on the business fee committee membership, but that the Chamber Coalition and others counseled him to choose representatives of various business sizes for the committee rather than organizations.
When the lack of retail input was recognized, he said, it was August, the committee work was already under way, and York suggested the membership be capped. He also noted that a public-comment period is standard at each meeting and CIBA members have testified.
With a sluggish economy and layoffs in high-tech jobs at Hewlett-Packard's Corvallis plant that were once considered among the most stable and desirable in town, Tomlinson said planning for the economic future of the city may be more critical than ever.
"If the deal has changes such that the Chamber Coalition can't support it, I think the City Council will lose the support of the general business community," he said. "If that's the case, then, boy, as a community we've missed an opportunity."
Wright, the business fee committee member who also worked to develop the Prosperity that Fits plan, agrees, but intends to keep working toward putting the plan into action. He said that while people have lined up to oppose the fee, nearly all support the plan's goals.
"Not having a secure source of funding will make it more challenging to get the work done that desperately needs doing," he said in an e-mail. "But there are other avenues of raising the money required to get some action into the plan's 48 action items, especially if we take all the good folks in the business community at their word: they want the PTF plan to succeed; they just don't want to be forced to pay for it."
Read more about the business fee and Prosperity that Fits plan and join the conversation at reporter Matt Neznanski's blog,"Between the Lines."
Matt Neznanski can be reached at 758-9518 or matt.neznanski@lee.net.