Let the battle begin! This is a follow-up article published by the KC Star about the city of Mission Kansas plan to impose a so called “driveway tax”. The new fee will “directly harm” small businesses,a state association says.
A statewide group of small businesses on Monday vilified Mission’s new so-called driveway tax as “completely backward” policy that will crush economic growth. The Kansas chapter of the National Federation of Independent Businesses said it was “shocked and disappointed at the latest tax scheme” approved in Mission last week.
“This new ‘driveway tax’ will directly harm small businesses,the very people Kansas is looking to for help creating jobs and working to jump-start the economy,” Dan Murray,state director of the NFIB,said in a statement issued Monday.
Last week,the Mission City Council approved charging property owners a new fee based on how much traffic they generate.It was thought to be the first of its kind in Kansas and the Midwest. The fee is aimed at properties that produce the most traffic and put the most wear and tear on roads. Big-box stores are going to be charged more than residential homes,which don’t generate as much traffic. The fee,which starts in December,is expected to produce $1.2 million a year to help fund a $38 million plan to improve streets over 10 years.
Preliminary numbers developed by the city showed that homeowners could pay $72 a year,while small businesses could pay $3,600 a year. It also could mean $12,000 for a drive-through restaurant and $65,000 for a local Target store. But city officials have clarified the small-business amount,saying it reflects only what might be charged for one building where several businesses are located.
City of Mission Administrator Mike Scanlon said that once the fee is broken down by the space the businesses use in a building,the amount could fall below $300 a year. Scanlon took exception to the description of the fee as a “driveway tax.” He noted that it is based on vehicle trips,not on whether you have a driveway.
“The goal was not to crush small businesses,but to invest in the very roads that a lot of people use to get to our small businesses,” Scanlon said. But Murray said the fee will “tax the very businesses bringing customers,who generate sales tax dollars,into the community.”
What do you think about the tax? Read the entire article here.
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