The New Rochelle City Council is considering whether to create a mandatory business registry that would index every business in the city and help determine if locally generated sales taxes are being properly filed with the state.
Although discussions of the registry are preliminary, the directory would likely include all for-profit and nonprofit businesses licensed to do business in New Rochelle. The city would charge an annual fee to be on the registry, with early estimates at $35, and charge a 10 percent monthly fine for businesses that don”™t register. Those who don”™t pay or supply false information could face revocation of their registration.
City staff expect to approve fee exemptions for nonprofits and government and religious organizations. An online portal to sign up would be made available in English and Spanish, according to the city.
Councilman Barry Fertel, a Democrat, said he was concerned the registry could be used by solicitors. He also questioned if registry information, such as contact information or email addresses, would constitute an invasion of privacy for business owners.
“My concern is it”™ll be used for purposes you don”™t even see,” Fertel said at the July 17 City Council meeting.
Luiz C. Aragon, New Rochelle”™s commissioner of development, said a lot of the information in the registry is already publicly available but that the index would serve as a central resource. He also mentioned some information would be protected under a “trade secret exemption.” He said estimates of the number of businesses currently operating in New Rochelle range from 2,000 to as many as 6,000.
“And everything in between,” he said. “It”™s a guessing game really.”
The registration, Aragon said, would help the city keep better records of what types of businesses exist and therefore better determine the needs of the industries that operate in New Rochelle. It also would enhance emergency services.
A similar registry exists in the city for multifamily dwellings. The city first explored a business registry, officials said, to get a better understanding of if local businesses were filing sales taxes. Councilman Lou Trangucci, a Republican, said the registry might overstep that goal.
“It seems like we”™re going beyond where we wanted to go with this,” he said.
The council discussed the possibility of a registry that would include only “brick and mortar” operations and not businesses that operate out of homes. City staff said they would analyze the concerns of elected officials and bring suggestions of parameters to the table at a future council meeting.
