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BY CAROL ARNETT<\/strong><\/p>\nThe Florissant City Council Monday passed a bill that will place a fee increase for business licenses on the Nov. 3rd ballot. <\/span>Fee increases must be approved by ballot.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n
<\/span>Before the meeting, Diane Weidinger, president of the Greater North County Chamber of Commerce, said that several members of the chamber had contacted her about the bill. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We were caught off guard,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said after <\/span>having received several calls from businesses concerned about the percent of the increase. <\/span><\/p>\n <\/span>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We understand licenses haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t been raised in a while,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Weidinger said, but said proposed increases of up to 500% were a surprise. <\/span>Weidinger pointed out that extra expenses would be passed on to consumers. <\/span><\/p>\n <\/span>Weidinger said that the chamber would move to put out more information about the election if the council passed the bill. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We need to get information out to businesses and consumers,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span>Mark Behlmann, owner of Behlmann Construction, a Florissant business, said that the percentage of the increases could be deceptive. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Mine is a 400% increase,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s still $75.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Behlmann said he wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t opposed to the increases, but suggested that the city reach out to the business community. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We understand you have to raise prices, but could you hold a carrot out as well?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span>After the meeting, Behlmann elaborated on what the city could do for business owners. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153There are things the city could do to help businesses that wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t cost anything,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. He suggested letting businesses put up temporary signs once a month or once a quarter, without requiring a permit, for example.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/span>Behlmann also said that he felt the council and the committee that was formed to study the fee increases \u00e2\u20ac\u0153missed an opportunity to use the Chamber of Commerce as a good resource.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d He noted that the chamber could have assisted the city in this matter. He also said that he thought the city should have been increasing the fees over the years. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Instead, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s boom \u00e2\u20ac\u201c at the worst possible time,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. <\/span><\/p>\n <\/span>Councilmen Andrew Podleski and Tom Schneider were the only votes against the measure. Podleski said he thought the whole license process should be revamped. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve waited many years,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153we can wait one more.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Podleski also noted that November was an off election, and turn-out would likely be low. <\/span><\/p>\n <\/span>Schneider said he would like to give business owners and the chamber more time to work with the city on the fees. <\/span>He said he heard from several business owners and they felt as though they didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have any input on the fee increases. <\/span><\/p>\n <\/span>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been doing it on the cheap for a long time,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Councilwoman Karen McKay. She noted that fees had not gone up in the 46 years since they were set. She noted that in her own business, a hair salon, individual stylist fees were $3. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It cost more to do the paperwork for the fee than the fee,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/span>McKay said that city Director of Finance Randy McDaniel surveyed neighboring communities, and Florissant fees were very low. <\/span>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The percent increase can sound like a lot,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Councilman Tim Lee said, but he noted that most of the fees were going up to $100 per year. <\/span><\/p>\n <\/span>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153This administration and the previous administration have asked for this,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Mayor Robert Lowery said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The timing is not good, and that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s unfortunate. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a lot of misinformation out on the street.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/span><\/p>\n <\/span>Lowery said he had talked to six business owners the day of the meeting, and when he explained the situation and what their new fees would be, they understood. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We are wasting money on clerical personnel and people who have to process these licenses,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Lowery said, agreeing with McKay that the fees cost more to process than what was collected. <\/span><\/p>\n <\/span>Lowery asked that the council consider postponing the bill, so that business owners could find out more about it. The council, however, voted on the bill. Podleski, Schneider, and Keith English voted against the bill.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BY CAROL ARNETT The Florissant City Council Monday passed a bill that will place a fee increase for business licenses on the Nov. 3rd ballot. Fee increases must be approved by ballot. Before the meeting, Diane Weidinger, president of the Greater North County Chamber of Commerce, said that several members of the chamber had contacted […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2094","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-florissant","entry"],"yoast_head":"\n
Florissant Will Place Business License Fee Hike On Nov. 3rd Ballot - flovalleynews.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/flovalleynews.com\/?p=2094\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Florissant Will Place Business License Fee Hike On Nov. 3rd Ballot - flovalleynews.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"BY CAROL ARNETT The Florissant City Council Monday passed a bill that will place a fee increase for business licenses on the Nov. 3rd ballot. Fee increases must be approved by ballot. 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Fee increases must be approved by ballot. Before the meeting, Diane Weidinger, president of the Greater North County Chamber of Commerce, said that several members of the chamber had contacted […]","og_url":"https:\/\/flovalleynews.com\/?p=2094","og_site_name":"flovalleynews.com","article_published_time":"2009-08-27T18:28:32+00:00","author":"independentnws","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"independentnws","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/flovalleynews.com\/?p=2094#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/flovalleynews.com\/?p=2094"},"author":{"name":"independentnws","@id":"https:\/\/flovalleynews.com\/#\/schema\/person\/7bede6d4517a6be3345b47415b09cebd"},"headline":"Florissant Will Place Business License Fee Hike On Nov. 3rd Ballot","datePublished":"2009-08-27T18:28:32+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/flovalleynews.com\/?p=2094"},"wordCount":676,"commentCount":0,"articleSection":["Florissant"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/flovalleynews.com\/?p=2094#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/flovalleynews.com\/?p=2094","url":"https:\/\/flovalleynews.com\/?p=2094","name":"Florissant Will Place Business License Fee Hike On Nov. 3rd Ballot - flovalleynews.com","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/flovalleynews.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2009-08-27T18:28:32+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/flovalleynews.com\/#\/schema\/person\/7bede6d4517a6be3345b47415b09cebd"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/flovalleynews.com\/?p=2094#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/flovalleynews.com\/?p=2094"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/flovalleynews.com\/?p=2094#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/flovalleynews.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Florissant Will Place Business License Fee Hike On Nov. 3rd Ballot"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/flovalleynews.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/flovalleynews.com\/","name":"flovalleynews.com","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/flovalleynews.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/flovalleynews.com\/#\/schema\/person\/7bede6d4517a6be3345b47415b09cebd","name":"independentnws","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f76505b4d7bc95b432faea9b79d00a6abc40ba8a96aef3a5fbd567ecb14b19a0?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f76505b4d7bc95b432faea9b79d00a6abc40ba8a96aef3a5fbd567ecb14b19a0?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f76505b4d7bc95b432faea9b79d00a6abc40ba8a96aef3a5fbd567ecb14b19a0?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"independentnws"},"url":"https:\/\/flovalleynews.com\/?author=1"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flovalleynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2094","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flovalleynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flovalleynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flovalleynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flovalleynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2094"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/flovalleynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2094\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flovalleynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flovalleynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flovalleynews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}