BPOL Tax Debated
By: Uriah A. Kiser
It was a decidedly tough crowd of business owners who met at King Street Blues in North Stafford on Jan. 9, to hear both supporting and opposing arguments for a proposed Business Professional Occupancy License Tax, or BPOL.
The mood of the meeting, sponsored by the Fredericksburg Regional Chamber of Commerce, was one of the opposition business leaders seems unreceptive to the proposed BPOL tax.
Unlike neighboring Spotsylvania and Prince William County, Stafford County does not require new businesses to obtain a county-issued license to operate.
BPOL would change that, requiring merchants to obtain and display business licenses.
The measure would also allow the county to tax licensed merchants up to 58 cents for every dollar the business brings in.
George Schwartz, D-Falmouth, chairman of the Stafford County Board of Supervisors, argued in favor of the new tax.
On a “fact finding” mission to survey business owners and get their opinions on the measure, Schwartz said the tax would bring in up to $7 million in new revenue for the county, and would allow Stafford to join “45 other cities, and 95 other counties” across the Commonwealth that already have the BPOL system in place.
“I came to listen; I heard some facts that I was not aware of, but there might be a compromise in the BPOL,” said Schwartz. “We are trying to attract more business to the area, yet we haven’t seen the growth that we should be.”
The proposed tax was originally brought before the board of supervisors last spring, but was deferred until after the November elections.
After the elections the board postponed the issue indefinitely.
BPOL is resurfacing now at a time of record growth, where in 2007 the county brought in nearly $182 million in local tax revenue, over $10 million more than the previous year.
Supervisor Paul Milde, R-Aquia, who argued against levying the tax, said it would “create an additional level of bureaucracy” that would negatively affect local merchants, and make new businesses reconsider moving into the county.
“I have not met a business owner yet that has liked the BPOL,” said Milde. “Growing an economy is a very fragile and complicated process, and we’ve done a very good job growing this economy.”
Milde said that it has long been a county tradition where the “Republicans are against” taxes and “Democrats are for” taxes.
BPOL can be implemented in five categories, allowing multiple tax rates for different types of businesses.
Virginia sets the maximum amount of tax a jurisdiction can charge, with neighboring Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania charging some of the region’s highest BPOL taxes.
The revenue from BPOL would go into the county’s general fund and would be spent at the discretion of the board of supervisors, with none of the new tax dollars being earmarked for any one specific project.
Schwartz said he doesn’t know the amount of BPOL tax the county would charge businesses in each category, if it were implemented.
Schwartz did say the merchant’s capital tax, an annual county tax on the amount of inventory merchants have in-stock on Jan. 1, could be abolished.
If Schwartz’s fact-finding mission resulted in business owners not wanting the new BPOL tax, he said he would not change his position.
“The time for BPOL has come,” said Schwartz.