City Hires Firm to Boost Tax Revenues

Hoping to ferret out tax revenue that businesses are not paying into the city coffers, the Ventura City Council has turned to a private consulting firm.

Municipal Resource Consultants, or MRC, of Westlake Village will add manpower and expertise to help the city identify additional sources of tax revenue.

Under a contract approved Monday, the city will pay $85,000 to MRC in exchange for its services.

This fee, however, is reimbursable by the state of California because the consultant’s service is helping the city comply with a state-mandated program to collect and report all local business tax.

MRC will also get 25% of all additional revenues it finds for the city.

The consultant’s group has worked with the city to provide its sales tax audit since 1986.

Sales tax revenues pay for one-fourth of the city’s $51-million 1995-96 maintenance and operations budget.

But the city wants to make sure it is collecting all taxes that are due and is looking for more ways to generate additional tax revenues.

MRC will look at expanding sources of revenue to include such things as documentary transfer tax, the tax paid when an individual or business transfers property titles.

They will also try to collect business license taxes from businesses not now paying them, and check compliance with the hotel tax.

“We estimate that there could be between $90,000 and $100,000 in new revenues for the city,” said Don Harrison, an MRC consultant.

As for streamlining the business license tax rosters, MRC will use special software to create an inventory which it will add to the city’s database of businesses.

It will also conduct a once-a-year walking inventory of all businesses in the city.

“If we don’t know they’re out there, we have to go find them, and we don’t have the manpower for that,” said Janey Espinosa, the city’s business tax supervisor.

Once detected, city staff will determine whether the business should be paying a tax, or if it qualifies for an exemption.

Businesses will then be contacted by the city for appropriate action.