VENTURA : Business-License Fee Rates to Be Adjusted

Under a plan adopted by the Ventura City Council, small businesses will be charged less and larger companies will pay more in annual business-license fees.

Small businesses have paid proportionally more than large companies under the city’s current rate structure, officials said. Ventura’s practice of using a fixed rate for business licenses has been banned by state law, and had to be changed or the city could be sued, said Everett Millais, the city’s director of community development.

The council approved the change Monday, and the new rate structure will go in effect in July, 1993. The city receives about $770,000 annually in taxes from the 9,530 businesses licensed in Ventura, and the new tax rate should not affect the total revenue, Millais said.

The new plan charges retailers a base fee of $45 plus 11 cents per $1,000 of gross receipts up to $5 million. Receipts that exceed $5 million will be taxed at 6 cents per $1,000. Other businesses would pay $45, plus 30 cents per $1,000 of gross receipts.

Included in the group of large companies that will be paying more under the new plan are car dealerships, department stores, utility companies and professionals such as doctors and attorneys, according to city officials.

Representatives from two utility companies--Southern California Gas Co. and Southern California Edison--made strong appeals to the council to exempt them from the business-license fees because they already pay thousands of dollars in franchise fees.

The council decided to charge utility companies five cents per customer instead of the 10 cents per customer as originally proposed.

Marcia Secord, area manager of Southern California Gas, said she was happy with the reduction, but still felt that utility companies should be exempted. “We already do pay a significant amount of revenue to Ventura in franchise fees,” she said.

Smaller companies don’t save much money individually under the new plan, said Chuck Voigtsberger, who owns The Copy Machine, a small copying company on Main Street. “I save $25 a year,” Voigtsberger said in an interview before the council meeting. “Whoopee--that will really help me weather the current economic storm.”