The Mission city council on Wednesday evening approved a resolution to extend the due date for business license fees from July 1 to Sept. 1, in an effort to help businesses during the coronavirus pandemic.
City staff has been working on business license renewals with a focus on creating an online form and payment methods to reduce human interactions, City Administrator Laura Smith said. As staff worked on this, Smith said an extension seemed to be a reasonable way to offer businesses — who might be impacted by the pandemic themselves — a couple of extra months.
“We realized with the timing of all of this as we’re coming into the various recovery phases that adding the requirement to pay a business license may be something that could cause stress for some of our businesses at this time,” Smith said.
Annually, business license fees generate an estimated $100,000 for the city, Smith said. While the city recognizes that as an important revenue stream in the long run, she said it was just as important to provide Mission businesses with additional support during this time.
Business licenses run from July 1 of the current year to June 30 of the following year, per Mission’s city code, Smith said. The resolution city staff put together allowed businesses some wiggle room with payments “without the threat of penalty” included in the code, she said.
Councilmember Debbie Kring thanked the city staff for looking out for Mission’s local businesses, and said she thinks “that’s a great move.” The city council passed the resolution unanimously and with no further discussion.
