News

DAYCARES REQUEST CHANGE

By Erin France/OF THE COMMERCIAL STAFF
Sunday, November 8, 2009 8:05 AM CST

Some Pine Bluff daycare owners are lobbying for the city to revisit the way it calculates the businesses’ occupational taxes.

Occupational taxes are fees paid to the state and local government to operate a particular kind of business.

According to city collector Albert Ridgell, the state charges daycares based on the number of children in their care.

The city, he said, charges based on the maximum number of children the business can hold.

“It doesn’t make sense to have 30 and pay for 80,” said 1st Ward Alderman Irene Holcomb during a Wednesday administration committee meeting.

Second Ward Alderman Wayne Easterly said he might like to see the city change its policy to collect daycare’s occupational taxes as the state does.

The issue is not a new one for council members who heard Stella Savage of It’s Mom Me Daycare in Pine Bluff after an August City Council meeting.

Savage said her business is expected to make a greater profit margin than it does.

“Why do I have to pay for children I don’t have?” she said.

She said she also is familiar with paying occupational taxes for a beauty parlor.

“I pay based on the amount of money that I make, not the amount of money that I could make,” she said of other businesses.

Savage requested the city change its laws concerning daycares.

“I think that’s totally unfair.”

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