Okaloosa County BOCC — April 27, 2013 — Business Tax Ordinance Parisot email — reading text

From: Jim Curry To: Karen Rossi Subject: March 19: FW: Business Tax Ordinance Date: Monday, March 11, 2013 9:27:57 AM Attachments: Bus Tax Ord Draft.docx Sec 1-10 General Penalty.docx Importance: High Karen - The commissioner wants to include the below email and the attachments for this agenda item. -----Original Message----- From: Dave Parisot Sent: Monday, March 11, 2013 6:48 AM To: John Dowd Cc: Jim Curry Subject: BCC Agenda Item for March 19: FW: Business Tax Ordinance Importance: High Mr. Dowd: I respectfully request that this email (to include the attachments hereto) and the two emails dated Feb. 21 in this "string" be included in the Agenda Packet for the Public Hearing scheduled for March 19, 2013. The following is my reply to Mr. Anderson's letter of Feb. 20, 2013: 1. In regard to Mr. anderson's accusation that I "blatantly" disregarded the Equity Study Commission's in regard to an Itinerant Business Tax, that is not true. The draft of the proposal for an Itinerant Business Tax that was rejected by the Equity Study Commission was quite different than the draft I proposed in the revision of our current County Ordinance on business taxes. In fact, during taped discussions of this topic at the Equity Study Commission meeting on June 26, 2012, Mr. Anderson and Mr. Allen commmented that they would prefer that these mobile or itinerrant businesses who come to Okaloosa County periodically for festivals, shows, etc., be charged the same business tax of $35.00 per year as any local businesses. This was also approved in discussion by members of the Equity Study Commission, i.e., to treat the itinerant businesses the same as a local business with a permanent address in Okaloosa County. Without addressing this in our proposed Ordinance revision, it seems to me that a business tax cannot be charged to such itinerrant businesses. 2. In the draft (See attachement to this email) of the Business Tax Ordinance I emailed to you on Feb. 15, 2013, in order to make the County Ordinance more of a "stand-alone" document, I incorporated many of the provisions of Chapter 205, Florida Statutes.    A. Sec. 12-33 (Dates due,delinquencies, and penalties) is a quote from para. 205.053 of F.S. 205. However, on the "penalty" section, I proposed fine amounts lower than what is in the F.S. 205 which authorizes penalties up to $250.   As we have previously discussed many times, the penalty section of our County Ordinances, i.e., Sec. 1-10 (see attachment 2) makes just about everything a misdemeanor or felony, with fines up to $500 and/or up to 60 days in the county jail, and the Courts must get involved to actually assess the penalty for each instance. In addition, since this is a Public Hearing, I assumed the dollar amounts for any fines would be discussed and adjusted if desired by the Board at the Public Hearing. In fact, these fine amounts are what were recommended by Mr. Josh Allen of the Tax Collector office at a meeting I had with him in June 2012 when he highlighted the high number of delinquencies his office was experiencing in payment of or late applications for the business tax receipt. The current penalties in Sec. 1-10 of our Muni-Code arerarely enforced due to having to get the Courts involved to actually assess the penalty. By listing fines and/or penalties in these topic specific ordinances, it also prevents those who are affected by our ordinances from having to search through the myriad of ordinances to find this information.     B. Sec. 12-36 (Exemptions) is also from F.S. 205, para. 205.192. I included this as it is the para.from the statute listing the broadest categories of exemptions. In my sub-para. (2) I refer to other exemptions in F.S. 205 as the State Legislature periodically updates these by granting exemptions to special interest groups, as it did in 2012 by exempting individual real estate agents.     C. Sec.12-37 (Revenues) is a direct quote from F.S. 205.0536 and memoralizes 1) that the County established a new rate structure per 205.0535; 2) that the distribution of the business tax receipts should be per F.S. 205.0536, i.e., the County retains all business taxes from businesses in unincorporated areas and requires revenues to be sent to the county Finance Office within 15 days after the month of receipt (perF.S. 205.0536); and 3) that the distribution of business taxes for businesses in municipal areas of the County are distributed by a population formula (per F.S.205.0536). I felt it was necessary to include this information as it significantly impacts the distribution of business tax receipts over the current and previous distribution methodology.      D. Sec. 12-34 (Business tax schedule): In regard to increasing the business tax on the one category of businesses (taxi drivers) that qualify under the maximum increase by the rate adjustment to $25, F.S. 205.0535(4) states that counties MAY increase (or decrease) by ordinance the rates of businesses taxes by up to 5% every other year (This provisoin requires a vote of a majority plus one to adopt), I did not include this provision as it would take until the year 2027 (14 years) to bring the $25 rate to $35. Thus, that rate will change every two years per the following and will require multiple reprogramming of the computer software:               a. 2015: $25.00 X 1.05 = $26.25               b. 2017: $26.25 X 1.05 = $27.56               c. 2019: $27.56 X 1.05 = $28.94               d. 2021: $28.94 X 1.05 = $30.39               e. 2023: $30.39 X 1.05 = $31.90               f. 2025: $31.90 X 1.05 = $33.50               g. 2027: $33.50 X 1.05 = $35.17   Thus, we will not be allowed to fully elevate the $25.00 tax to the $35.00 level until 2027. Para. 12-34(c) addressing partial receipts incoprporates a practice the Tax Collector stated at the Equity Study Commission meetings that is currently in practice. Without this in the County Ordinance, it seems that the Tax Collector must charge everyone the full $35 rate at all times, no matter when the application is received.      E. Sec.12-35 (Itinerant business tax) was included as stated above, that without addressing these mobile businesses, it seems that the Tax Collector cannot collect a business tax from them. As I stated in my email to you on Feb. 15, 2013, I adopted this section on Itinerrant Businesses from the Escambia County Ordinance, Chapter 18, Article VI. Itinerrant Vendors. It incorporates discussion by the Equity Study Commission as well as by Mr. Anderson and Mr. Allen as their preference to address itinerrant businesses following rejection of the previously proposed section of a draft ordinance we discussed at the meeting on June 26. Their intent was to have a single rate of $35 for itinerrant vendors, just as for local businesses, and to have the $35 fee apply for an entire tax year, not for a 60-day period as previously proposed. I can bring the meeting tapes to the Public Hearing. 3. In the draft of the revised Business Tax Ordinance I emailed to you on Feb. 15, 2013, you will note that I put the draft in the "Muni-Code" format per our previous agreememt that updates to County Ordinances would be put in that format to better ensure the revised ordinances are correctly adopted into the Muni-Code. In closing, it is not the Tax Collector's job to legislate but to implement the legislation or ordinances approved by the Board.     Dave Parisot Okaloosa County Commissioner, District 2 Board Vice Chairman (2012 & 2013) 1804 Lewis Turner Blvd., Ste 100, Fort Walton Beach, FL 32547 Office: (850) 651-7105; Mobile: (850) 855-1042 "Make it Better; Make it Lasting; MAKE IT HAPPEN."--General Wilbur Creech, USAF, Ret. NOTE: DUE TO FLORIDA'S BROAD PUBLIC RECORDS LAWS, THIS E-MAIL, INCLUDING YOUR E-MAIL ADDRESS, MAY BE SUBJECT TO PUBLIC DISCLOSURE. ________________________________________ From: Dave Parisot Sent: Thursday, February 21, 2013 12:07 PM To: John Dowd Subject: RE: Business Tax Ordinance John, I noted that you included the part about increasing the Business tax in the $25 category by 5% every two years. I was aware that could ber done, but left it out on purpose as it will take 14 years to reach the $35 level. Here's the math:     a. 2015: $25.00 X 1.05 = $26.25     b. 2017: $26.25 X 1.05 = $27.56     c. 2019: $27.56 X 1.05 = $28.94     d. 2021: $28.94 X 1.05 = $30.39     e. 2023: $30.39 X 1.05 = $31.90     f. 2025: $31.90 X 1.05 = $33.50     g. 2027: $33.50 X 1.05 = $35.17   Thus, we will not be allowed to fully elevate the $25.00 tax to the $35.00 level until 2027. I am disappointed that you think I am siding with Ben, Matt, and Don (whom I presume you to mean Ben Anderson, Matt Gaetz, and Don Gaetz) as I have had no conversations with any of them, and if you think I pay any attention to any of their political shenanigans, then I guess you do not really understand me. I took the time last week to discuss with you my concerns for your legal representation of the County. As I said in the public meeting last Tuesday, my concerns had little to no bearing on the TDD issues and Mark Bellinger's thievery. I will send you additional comments on the revised ordinance in a separate email containing the letter which Mr. Anderson sent to Commissioner Amunds. Dave Parisot Okaloosa County Commissioner, District 2 Board Vice Chairman (2012 & 2013) 1804 Lewis Turner Blvd., Ste 100, Fort Walton Beach, FL 32547 Office: (850) 651-7105; Mobile: (850) 855-1042 "Make it Better; Make it Lasting; MAKE IT HAPPEN."--General Wilbur Creech, USAF, Ret. NOTE: DUE TO FLORIDA'S BROAD PUBLIC RECORDS LAWS, THIS E-MAIL, INCLUDING YOUR E-MAIL ADDRESS, MAY BE SUBJECT TO PUBLIC DISCLOSURE. ________________________________________ From: John Dowd Sent: Thursday, February 21, 2013 8:17 AM To: Dave Parisot Subject: Business Tax Ordinance Dave: Please find attached Notice of Public Hearing and draft of amended Business Tax Ordinance. In preparing the Ordinance I considered drafts of the Ordinance prepared by Mr. Anderson, Tax Collector, and , you, the Chairman of the Equity Study Commission. My research on the subject confirmed that we could not adopt a single rate county wide due to the limitation in the statute prohibiting an increase of over 200%. The statute does allow a minimum rate of $25. I’ve provided in the Ordinance for this rate to be incrementally increased biannually to ultimately reach the common $35 per year. This is a draft that may be modified at the public hearing. I drafted my own ordinance, but considered the input of Dave and Ben. I thought your proposed revisions were excellent, but am not in the position to advocate a departure from the Board’s instructions. When you teamed up with Ben, Matt and Don to fire me, I’m in the unenviable position of not having the freedom to exercise the discretion that I have traditionally enjoyed. Thanks,