Santa Rosa County debates scrapping $15 business tax amid financial concerns

SANTA ROSA COUNTY, Fla. — The push to repeal a business tax in Santa Rosa County is being met with some challenges that could be costly.

That tax is generally less than $15 for most business owners and the county would lose about $140,000 each year.

Whether the county gets rid of the fee only or does away with the whole process, it could create other problems.

Commissioner Sam Parker proposed a public hearing for July to repeal the business tax receipt in Santa Rosa County, which would provide occupational licenses for free to business owners.

“I saw this proposal in the backup and I thought it was absolutely great,” Parker said.

“This is the American dream,” he added. “Americans should have a right to start a business and not have to pay for it, I don’t believe that. They pay taxes, they pay sales tax, and all these other things.”

County Tax Collector Stan Nichols told WEAR News he’s not against getting rid of the tax itself.

But the process is important to the county — getting vital information for the county property appraiser and keeping that process puts both a financial and physical burden on both offices.

“I wasn’t upset that they were proposing getting rid of the tax. I believe in less taxes, I was frustrated that they were gonna have me continue to do work and not be compensated,” Nichols said.

“I think all of us together want an effort to reduce taxes on our taxpayers, but we wanna make sure we’re doing that responsibly and that the costs we intended don’t come out on the opposite end of what our intended consequences were,” he added.

Parker told WEAR News Wednesday that he still thinks getting rid of this tax is a good idea and is still pushing for a public hearing.

But commissioners are considering all the issues and plan to find what works best financially for all parties.

The County Commission was originally planning to hold a public forum on the proposal at their meeting on July 25, but the date could be moved up.