Marthasville refunding business licenses after complaints

Adam Rollins, Staff Writer
Posted 1/3/23

The city of Marthasville is partially refunding new business license fees after merchants complained that the city had shorted their old licenses by six months.

In November, the Marthasville Board …

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Marthasville refunding business licenses after complaints

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The city of Marthasville is partially refunding new business license fees after merchants complained that the city had shorted their old licenses by six months.

In November, the Marthasville Board of Aldermen passed an ordinance to set the fee for all business licenses in the city at a flat amount of $50. Mayor David Lange said the new fee replaced Marthasville’s previous outdated and overly complicated merchant fees, which charged different amounts of money for a wide variety of businesses, and tacked on extra small charges for things like newspaper stands or pool tables. 

In addition to being unnecessarily complicated, the small value of some of the licenses, which were established many years ago, weren’t worth the time spent to process them, added Lange, who was an advocate for the updated, flat fee.

“Every merchant license will just be $50. It doesn’t matter if you’re in the service industry, or you’re an attorney, or you’re in the lawn care business,” Lange stated when the ordinance was passed in November.

However, when aldermen voted to approve the new license fees, they unknowingly caused some headaches by setting the renewal date for all business licenses to be in January. On paper, this timing is consistent with existing city ordinance; however, aldermen didn’t realize it conflicted with the city’s actual practice, which was to issue licenses for a period of July through June.

Thus, businesses began receiving notice that they need to renew their licenses six months earlier than expected, that their old licenses would be voided, and that they owe City Hall another $50.

Several business owners complained to Alderman Christopher DeVore, who brought their concerns to the board on Dec. 21.

“It would make sense to ... give them a refund for half of the year, and then start fresh with 2024,” DeVore said. “These people do have a business license from us, and I think it would be good faith for us to say ‘Yeah, we’ll honor that business license.’

“They’re confused about losing half of their license,” DeVore added.

Mayor Lange countered that the city shouldn’t feel much need to issue refunds, because the new $50 fees were actually lower than initial proposals of $75 or $100, and that the fees were set at the lower amount to offset the early renewal. The low dollar amounts of the previous licenses shouldn’t be much cause for upset, either, Lange added.

“If you want to refund $5 here and $10 there, that’s what it amounts to,” the mayor told the aldermen.

However, Alderman Nick Lange argued that as a matter of integrity, the city should be issuing refunds not for the old licenses, but for the new ones. The city should have honored existing licenses, and only charged current businesses for the second half of 2023. To make it right, Alderman Lange asked the board to approve $25 refunds for every business that had renewed its license under the new fee.

“We already agreed to (the previous licenses), so we’ve got to do what’s right,” Alderman Lange stated.

Aldermen DeVore and Gary Dixon agreed, voting with him to approve the $25 refunds. Alderman Leo Meyer was absent.

Marthasville Board of Aldermen, Business license, Merchant license

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