Written Comment: City Council Considering Business Surcharge on Gross Receipts

To Beaverton City Council,

As a small business owner, I am writing to you with sincere concerns regarding Project 5 of Agenda Bill 26162: Hold A Work Session To Evaluate A Potential Business Surcharge Based On Gross Receipts.

Here are a few points to consider:

1. This is the wrong time for the City to further strain any business in Beaverton. I am personally unaware of any business, large or small, in Beaverton that is doing well at this time. On the contrary, the district in which we operate offers countless, first-hand reports of struggling small businesses in all sectors.

2. A “potential business surcharge based on gross receipts” sounds similar to a tax, but much worse. Gross receipts are no indication of a company’s profitability. Net Income tells the real story of how a business is doing. To scrape a percentage off the top of gross receipts is simply wrong.

3. Any discussion impacting local businesses should have local businesses involved in said discussion. I don’t see any reference to involving anyone from outside the City of Beaverton allocating resources of internal staff and “consultants” in this project.

4. Who is supposed to pay for the cost of this work? $95,000 to $130,000 is further burden on taxpayers (and small businesses) at a time when the City has already recently increased utility fees markedly.

What is the real purpose of this “surcharge”? If it is to simply shore up budgetary gaps, then may I please redirect you to alternative ways to balance the budget? Many of these have been stated to City Council before, by many concerned community members and advocates.

Here are a few solutions to consider:

1. The City currently owns numerous empty lots in and around Central Beaverton. Perhaps the City should consider selling those properties, instead of placing additional financial burdern on small businesses.

2. The City currently operates numerous vanity projects at unnecessary and wasteful expense to taxpayers, including the First Street Dining Commons, The Loop Project, and the Milikan Way Extension. Perhaps these projects should be indefinitely tabled or shut down until such a time when the City has adequate operating finances, rather than placing additional financial burden on small businesses.

3. The City continues funding the corrupt “nonprofit” known as the Beaverton Downtown Association, which to date has still issued zero apology for its censorship of community members, small businesses, artists, and political candidates. The BDA additionally continues pushing a myopic programming schedule in the First Street Dining Commons that is directly competing with adjacent restaurants, and impacting their dine-in numbers by 50% or more during those events. Business owners along the Commons continue to express to us their concerns that the BDA and City do not care about them or listen to them. Perhaps the City should reallocate BDA funding into budget shortfall, rather than placing additional financial burden on small businesses.

This is not a time to pass off financial burden to any business in Beaverton; It is a time when the City should tighten its belt like the rest of us are already doing. To even suggest a surcharge on gross receipts shows is an unfortunate example of a City Council that does not understand the needs of the small businesses it serves.

Please cease any discussion about Project 5 of Agenda Bill 26162 until such a time when full transparency of the intended goals can be illuminated, and when actual, local business owners can be involved in the conversation. We, for one, would gladly volunteer. Will you include us?

Thank you for your time.

David Anderson, Owner
Syndicate Wine Bar