The New Rochelle City Council has created a business database that will index most companies in the city, although it opted not to charge businesses an annual registration fee.
Business owners will be required to register annually, but the council modified the plan just prior to approving it at its legislative meeting Friday, scrapping a proposed $35 yearly fee. Councilman Lou Trangucci, a Republican, said residents and businesses were “sick and tired of fees.”
“I don”™t care if it”™s a dollar; people don”™t want another fee because they feel government is imposing on them,” he said.
Mayor Noam Bramson, a Democrat, agreed, saying “as a symbolic matter (the fee) gives a different feel to all of this.” Bramson suggested amending the law that established the registry to omit the fee but to put in place a monthly penalty for noncompliance of up to $350.
The business registry will include all for-profit commercial businesses that lease or own space in New Rochelle. It will include all traditional retail stores as well as other companies that operate in the city and have a retail function. It exempts nonprofits and religious organizations.
Which businesses should be included in the registry was a point of debate point among council members, who narrowed the scope of the proposal after discussions this summer. Professional offices, such as medical offices or attorney offices, might not traditionally be defined as retail businesses or pay sales taxes but were included in the ultimate scope of the registry by council members.
Councilwoman Shari Rackman, a Democrat, said the narrow focus did not rule out expanding the registry to include more types of businesses in the future. “I think rather than trying to hit everybody, let”™s start narrow and broaden it,” she said.
A business registry was first floated earlier this year, similar to the city”™s database on owners of multiple dwellings. One benefit cited in discussions was the use of the annual registry by the city to police proper uses of buildings where a sign might incorrectly list what type of business is operating within a storefront. City officials also said the registry would give New Rochelle a better handle on sales taxes in the city, although enforcement of paying sales tax is the state”™s jurisdiction and not the city”™s.
Luiz C. Aragon, New Rochelle”™s commissioner of development, said although the city had other lists of businesses operating, the lists were not kept up to date on an annual basis. The registry will be comprehensive, he said, and updated each year.
“It”™s important to be able to analyze who has businesses in our city,” Aragon told council members.
Councilman Barry Fertel, a Democrat, was the only council member to vote against establishing the registry. He said he felt a business database might have been intrusive on companies”™ privacy by creating a listing of contact information and emails that could be a resource for solicitors and spammers.
He called the law arbitrary in what it was trying to accomplish and “woefully unenforceable” in that business owners with illegal uses of storefronts and companies that might not be filing sales taxes would not cooperate with the registry anyway.
“I think that the idea that we”™re using this to verify that businesses are paying sales taxes might be a little silly,” Fertel said.
Businesses that do not register annually will be sent a notice that they are not in compliance. They then will have 10 days to register before the penalty fee is imposed.
