8/25/1992 - Laserfiche WebLink

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ON MOTION by Commissioner Scurlock, SECONDED by Commissioner Bird, the Board unanimously (4-0) rescinded their prior vote and made a declaration of emergency with regard to the effective date of Ordinance 92-23, for the reason that when the Board adopted Ordinance 92-23, the intent was that the effective date would have been October 1, 1992. Commissioner Bowman understood then that if the effective date is changed to October 1, the fees that have been collected after July 6, 1992 must be returned. Attorney Vitunac explained that the Tax Collector will either return the fees or give the realtors credit for licenses obtained on or after October 11 1992. Before opening the Public Hearing, Chairman Eggert reported that Nancy Offutt had telephoned this morning from Washington, D.C. to express her opposition to real estate sales people having to pay a county occupational license fee since many of them already pay fees to the cities of Vero Beach and Sebastian. She suggested that some way be found to charge a city/county fee. Chairman Eggert advised that Mrs. Offutt also asked if insurance sales people pay this fee, and she had answered that is something that the Attorney's Office needs to review with the Tax Collector. Commissioner Scurlock emphasized that we went through this whole process at a public hearing with a recommendation from staff and an analysis by the County Attorney's Office. Chairman Eggert stated that is absolutely correct, but she was just reporting a phone call. Commissioner Bird stated he would vote to change the effective date of the ordinance to October 1, 1992, but he really felt we need to have our staff, in cooperation with the Tax Collector, take an in-depth look at this occupational license situation throughout the county. There are some vast inequities in it and it does put an additional tax on people during these hard economic times. He felt that if we look at the bottom line of how much is collected and what the administrative costs are to collect the fees plus the cost of enforcement throughout the county, he wasn't sure there is a net financial benefit to the County. Maybe it just puts a burden on the business people in the county who are having to pay it. He definitely felt there is a real problem in someone operating in the City of Vero Beach and having to pay a double license fee. Commissioner Bird believed that if there is going to be an occupational license fee, it should be a county fee and applied 31 BOOK k' 251992d F'�1i,E p