Small FlyShop business challenges in USA

Bill Kiene originally posted a thoughtful lament about small business
problems in the US. I posted about an insidious, arrogant TV ad from the
local bus agency bragging that they were charging $6 per $1000 receipts to
pay for their rarely used bus services. My point was that no bus riders
shopped at fly shops. Fly shops and other businesses often are forced to
fund non relevant services. Businesses are also being charged taxes for
special district services that they don't use.

The various governmental agencies are also increasing taxes on small
business services they do use. Business license fees, inventory and similar
specific business taxes are always increasing which we know about. But
today I read about a unique way for them to kill businesses - drive-in
maintenance fees. A new local county ordinance will force businesses to pay
23 cents each for monthly drive-ins! Homeowners will only pay $2.17/month
and apartment owners will only pay $1.68 per unit per month. So 1,000
drive-ins per month will cost the fly shop $230, 10,000 drive-ins will cost
the fly-shop $2,300 per month and so on. A car load of prospects or a
single driver cost the fly shop owner 23 cents whether or not they buy
anything.

These add-on taxes are truly "catch and kill." THEY should be killed!
Support your local fly shop.
Good luck!
John

"Greg Pavlov" wrote in message
...

To my original post which said:
..... But
today I read about a unique way for them to kill businesses - drive-in
maintenance fees. A new local county ordinance will force businesses to
pay
23 cents each for monthly drive-ins! Homeowners will only pay
$2.17/month
and apartment owners will only pay $1.68 per unit per month. So 1,000
drive-ins per month will cost the fly shop $230, 10,000 drive-ins will
cost
the fly-shop $2,300 per month and so on. ...

Greg asked?

What do you mean by "drive-ins" and who is going to count
or be able to check the counts ?

"Drive-ins" means to drive off the road, blacktop, gravel, dirt path or
whatever the politicians consider a "road" onto a fly shop and/or other
business property. "Counting" per the ordinance = "The number of daily
trips for each type of land use activity will be estimated and grouped using
the Institute of Traffic Engineers Trip Generation Manual, a nationally
recognized standard method of vehicle trip estimation. Any person required
to pay the fee can have that fee adjusted if the estimated trips from the
manual are not accurate for he actual nonresidential use of the property."

Sadly it appears the business owners will have to pay for the counting of
drive-ins in order to challenge the manual's numbers. My guess is that the
manual will be skewed in favor of "average sized" businesses which work in
favor of the taxing authority. Big, high volume firms will probably accept
the manual's "average" volumes. Smaller businesses like fly shops will
probably have to buy or rent an "acceptable" counting device, fill out
elaborate paperwork and take in the results to newly hired county employees
who will haggle over the results and grudgingly adjust drive-ins down to
actual numbers and then eventually reduce the fly shops monthly tax. If the
small business owner does nothing, he'll pay more than his fair share. If
the small business owner does not pay attention to annual manual increases,
month to month variances and his tax bill he'll pay more than his fair
share.

In itself, this newly proposed tax increase may not be the straw that broke
the camel's back, but it is just one example of the specific tax increases
and accompanying hassles governmental agencies lay upon fly shop owners. It
adds to their cost and to their workload. They need our help.

John

From: "John Lindsey"

rational explanation of lunacy snipped

John, in what state do you reside, and why would the population of that state
sit still for such a rediculous tax scheme? You know, the money ultimately will
come from the consumer, as most businesses will simply pass on the cost. This
will hurt the small fly shops and similar businesses, as online shopping will
become more attractive as the local prices rise.

Vote these idiots out of office.

I thought Taxachusetts was bad until I read that. (They'll get the drive-in tax
from me when they pry the money from my cold, dead hands)


George Adams

"All good fishermen stay young until they die, for fishing is the only dream of
youth that doth not grow stale with age."
---- J.W Muller

"George Adams" wrote...
From: "John Lindsey"
rational explanation of lunacy snipped

John, in what state do you reside, and why would the population of that state
sit still for such a rediculous tax scheme? You know, the money ultimately
will
come from the consumer, as most businesses will simply pass on the cost. This
will hurt the small fly shops and similar businesses, as online shopping will
become more attractive as the local prices rise.

Vote these idiots out of office.

I thought Taxachusetts was bad until I read that. (They'll get the drive-in
tax
from me when they pry the money from my cold, dead hands)

They already have this is Mass. It's called the "Mass. Pike"
--
TL,
Tim
------------------------
http://css.sbcma.com/timj

From: "Tim J."

They already have this is Mass. It's called the "Mass. Pike"

Only if you drive east.....go west, young man.


George Adams

"All good fishermen stay young until they die, for fishing is the only dream of
youth that doth not grow stale with age."
---- J.W Muller

"George Adams" wrote...
From: "Tim J."

They already have this in Mass. It's called the "Mass. Pike"

Only if you drive east.....go west, young man.

Morning: West = $.45
Afternoon: East = $.45
That equates to about $250.00 / year just to go to work. Now that just doesn't
seem right, especially when I can't even write it off as a tax.
--
TL,
Tim
------------------------
http://css.sbcma.com/timj

From: (Greg Pavlov)

"Drive-ins" means to drive off the

Balance of lunacy mercifully snipped

That is really something. It sounds like it belongs
in a SNL routine.

More like Monty Python.


George Adams

"All good fishermen stay young until they die, for fishing is the only dream of
youth that doth not grow stale with age."
---- J.W Muller