photo by: Emma Delk

Moundsville City Council Policy Subcommittee member Ginger DeWitt, right, voiced her support for blanket business licenses during an early April meeting. Also pictured is Councilman Eugene Saunders.

MOUNDSVILLE — City council is considering implementing a blanket business license for vendors at Moundsville events to allow small businesses to sell their goods without the obstacle of acquiring an individual business license.

City Manager Rick Healy proposed the blanket business license idea to council members during a Police Subcommittee meeting in early April. He said the recent increase in checks by the state tax department for business licenses at local events motivated the idea.

Healy said the issue had been discussed in his office for “some time,” noting that the state tax department had become “very aggressive” in researching and finding businesses who do not have business licenses.

“They [state tax department employees] ask the vendors whether they have a business license, and if they don’t, they tell them, ‘You need to get one. Here’s the paperwork to do it,'” Healy said.

Healy added that state tax office employees are now going to local festivals, fairs and craft shows and asking every booth whether they have a business license.

Healy said many vendors do not know they must acquire a business license to sell at local events. He noted the added stipulation of collecting and paying state sales tax required by getting a business license may deter vendors from selling at local events.

For the Marshall County Fair, Healy said that “historically,” vendors have been exempted by the City of Moundsville and have not had to pay the city anything to sell at the fair. Other events, such as the Moundsville Economic Development Council hosting a craft show, require that every vendor be licensed by the city, pay B&O Tax to the city, collect sales tax from their purchasers and submit sales tax to the state.

In lieu of vendors each acquiring their own business license, Healy said event organizers could instead pay to acquire a blanket business license for the event. He said the license would cover “all of the vendors” present.

“This blanket business license could be based on the number of vendors,” Healy said. “For example, if there’s 10 vendors, it’s $25 [for the blanket business license]. If there’s 20 [vendors], it’s $50 [for the blanket business license].”

Police Subcommittee Chair and Vice Mayor Sara Wood-Shaw agreed with the idea. She noted that “a lot” of vendors, including those from outside the county attending city events, were concerned about the crackdown on business licenses.

“Many vendors have said they can’t pay B&O Tax, pay the 1% sales tax and everything with the state because they come to these shows on the weekends as a hobby,” Wood-Shaw said. “It won’t be worth it for them to come to the county and participate if that’s the case. Many of these vendors are going to drop out of these events.”

In addition to keeping vendors in the city, Wood-Shaw said the blanket license could benefit organizations that hold fundraisers with vendors.

“I think it would be really beneficial and take a lot of work off the city so they don’t have to try to police hundreds of different small home vendors that might be making crafts at their house,” Wood-Shaw said.

Policy Subcommittee member Ginger DeWitt said she first encountered the issue when a state tax department employee called John Marshall High School, where she works as a supervisory aide, and said they needed the contact information for whoever ran their craft show so the employee could obtain the names and addresses of every vendor.

“Of course, my reply to them was, ‘This is a joke, isn’t it?'” DeWitt said. “I just couldn’t believe they would do that when people attend these events as a hobby. I like your [Healy’s] idea because it will just hold the person holding the event responsible instead of every single person.”

Healy responded that it would be up to the entity holding the event to determine how they would pay for the blanket license, whether that would be collecting $1 from every vendor to pay the fee or the entity paying the fee upfront.

“We would still have to coordinate with the entities, and they would have to supply us with the vendor names just so we know how many are there,” Healy said. “After we get that one block fee, we’re done, and they can have their event. We’ll make a little bit of money in lieu of what we would lose from all these vendors getting business licenses, but it will be a lot easier for us to manage than it would be to try to go the other route.”

Healy asked City Attorney Thomas White for feedback on the legality of the blanket business licenses. White said he did not think there was a “legal problem” with the concept but could “certainly research” the matter if the city wanted to proceed.

Healy said the idea did not have to be taken to council yet, as he wanted to create a “starting point” for the discussion. He said council could give White some time to develop a policy and return to the discussion in May.

“If council is okay with that [returning to the discussion in May] because we’re not really at the point where we know enough language yet [to develop the policy], but I think in a month we can make that work,” Healy said.

Wood-Shaw confirmed that the policy subcommittee will return to the blanket business license discussion in May to eventually take it forward to council.