BY DAN HILDEBRAN
Monitor Editor
GREEN COVE SPRINGS— County Commissioner Betsy Condon continued her opposition to a proposed Clay County business licensing ordinance commissioners are now considering.
If enacted, the ordinance would require many county businesses to purchase a license to operate in the county. Now, the cities of Keystone Heights and Green Cove Springs, in addition to the Town of Orange Park already require businesses to purchase licenses within their jurisdictions.
Commissioner Jim Renninger, who has championed the tax since last year, has said the levy would not only would advance his goal of shifting the county’s tax burden away from property owners to other county residents, but would also give the county an idea of what businesses are operating within its county lines.
Commissioner Wayne Bolla repeated that benefit during the board’s April 26 meeting, when county staff gave commissioners an update on their research of the proposed tax.
“We had a meeting with JTA and they asked us: ‘Where are your employment centers and how many employees does each business have so we can schedule where we will stop the bus?’” Bolla said to Condon. “Our answer is: we don’t know. We don’t know anything. That is one example.”
In February, all four of Condon’s colleagues said they wanted to explore the idea of adopting a county-wide business license, charging an annual fee of under $50, but the Crystal Lake resident questioned the value businesses would get from the levy.
“If we’re going to do this, it almost seems like a money grab from our businesses and I would say, for what?” she said.
During the board of county commissioners’ April 26 meeting, Condon repeated her objection to the business license idea, citing the example of a 16-year-old she recently hired to mow the lawn at her business in Keystone Heights.
“Are you going to go out and (license) every teenager that’s trying to start their business?” she asked. “I still haven’t had anyone explain to me what government’s place is in knowing what businesses are (operating in the county).”
“To me, that is anti-business in Clay County,” she continued. “There are a lot of businesses out there that just don’t want government in their business.”
Assistant County Manager Troy Nagle and County Attorney Courtney Grimm said Florida law limits counties in the manner in which they may levy a business tax.
In a prior meeting, the pair told commissioners that under state statute, many businesses would be exempt from licensing their enterprises under a county ordinance, including those operating under state regulations like physicians’ offices, barbers and other professional service firms.
Commissioner Mike Cella said that loophole has convinced him to withdraw his support for the business license.
Bolla said that with three commissioners still supporting the idea, county staff will continue researching the ordinance.
