LODI, Calif. — Business owners in Lodi have a new way to apply for and renew their business licenses, but the city says it's still trying to make things right for hundreds of people charged an illegal tax.
Last September, the city discovered the tax it was charging on business licenses since 1995 violated state law. It stopped issuing business licenses altogether and started automatically sending out nearly 4,700 checks to different businesses that paid the tax in the past year.
"That was the statute of limitations and that's exactly what we paid out," said Lodi Public Information Officer Nancy Sarieh. "We are definitely working with any businesses that may have not been paid. We have their checks and we are not planning on using that money for anything else other than helping them cash them."
Lodi says it still has nearly 600 uncashed checks ranging from $1 to $60,000. While the physical checks do expire, the city says the refund money does not. They are asking people having issues with their refunds to call the Budget Manager at 209-269-4638.
"There was a lot of frustration last year," said Lodi Chamber of Commerce CEO JP Doucette. "Businesses in California already face a lot of hurdles in terms of we pay some of the highest tax rates in the country, the regulatory burden that we carry. To know a tax was being collected that shouldn't have was extremely frustrating."
Despite hundreds of checks still uncashed, Doucette believes the city is heading in the right direction.
"We have new leadership with the city. Our new city manager Mr. Carney has an extensive finance background," said Doucette. "We believe any issues moving forward that come up, he's going to take a proactive approach to solve that with the business community."
The city says it consulted with the business community when designing a new online portal for business license renewals and applications.
"We actually put it through a pilot period before we launched it officially to make sure there weren't any issues," said Sarieh. "We absolutely had zero issues with it."
A test with no issues gave city officials in Lodi the green light to launch the website, which was met with an immediate response.
"We actually have had so much success that 670 businesses have applied already," said Sareih of the online portal's activity within only a couple of days. "It is a $25 fee this time and it is just to cover regulatory and administrative costs as well as any state requirement fees."
For Doucette, the $25 is a small price to pay for what could be a big reward.
"Business licenses are critical," said Doucette. "If you need business financing or you're applying for grants, oftentimes it's a necessity to have an active business license."
Now, business owners in Lodi have an instant and easy way to apply for that critical document.
"We were excited to have an easy way for businesses to get their license registered online," said Doucette. "Ultimately, a community is only successful if its business community is successful."
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