City seeks to calm complaints on new business license requirement
Columbia’s business license office will be sending a letter soon to its 7,000 permitted businesses to quell complaints about a new revenue-verification procedure.
The letter – to be mailed late this week or early next week – will explain that only the gross-revenue portion of federal income tax returns must be disclosed to the city in order to get or renew a business license, business license office director Brenda Kyzer told City Council on Tuesday.
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Business owners who choose to show the relevant portion in person will not have to provide a printed copy, she said.
The letter is in response to complaints from some business owners who said the city was seeking their entire tax return as a way of backing up the gross revenue figures that are required on business license applications. Some companies also worried that the city could not ensure the confidentiality of the information.
The business license office routinely shreds tax records of companies that willingly provide them, Kyzer said. Further, state law bans the disclosure of protected information.
Clif LeBlanc
Environmental firm hired to analyze impact of Olympia Walmart
An Alpharetta, Ga., environmental consulting firm on Tuesday won a city contract to analyze the impact of a proposed Walmart-based shopping complex near the Olympia community.
AMEC Environment & Infrastructure will be paid up to $100,000 to determine how the controversial retail complex would affect flooding and water quality of Rocky Branch Creek upstream and downstream of the Assembly Street site where the city-owned Capital City Stadium stands.
City Council awarded the contract without a dissenting vote. But Councilman Sam Davis was absent from the meeting.
Clif LeBlanc
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