Hearings scheduled on latest versions of city business license and tax bills EHB 2005 and ESSB 5777

City business license and tax proposal EHB 2005 is scheduled for a hearing in the Senate Commerce, Labor & Sports Committee on Thursday, March 16 at 1:30 pm. This version includes extending the date for cities to choose to participate in FileLocal instead of the business licensing system by one year, from July 2017 to 2018. It also changes responsibility for staffing and chairing the workgroup of cities and businesses on apportionment of service income from the Department of Revenue to the Municipal Research and Services Center (MRSC). The amended bill did not amend the population threshold of 500 for the hardship exemption from requiring cities to join the business licensing system.

ESSB 5777 is scheduled for a hearing in the House Finance Committee on Friday, March 17 at 8 am. More favorable to cities, this bill would adopt a more flexible approach to providing hardship exemptions to join the business licensing system. It also allows cities to choose the alternative city-operated FileLocal tax and licensing system through 2020.

AWC will be putting together a panel of cities to testify at the hearings and will continue to work with the business community, with the hope that any final version of the bill achieves the goals of assisting businesses by streamlining the license process and protecting local authority.