Business license, or new tax?

On the surface, it’s an idea that might appear to have merit.

The city of Kalispell is making plans to institute a business licensing system — a registry that would include information vital during an emergency, such as contact names and phone numbers and a way to enter the building.

And it would only cost a business $20 or $30 a year, except if you’re a medical marijuana business, which would have to pay about 10 times as much.

What’s wrong with this picture?

First off, any way you look at it, it’s just another tax.

And even though the city may defend it as revenue-neutral, why impose a new tax just to raise enough money to create a list for the city’s benefit?

Is there really a tangible benefit to a business to shell out money to the city just so the city knows you’re there?

Increasing public safety is a primary reason city officials cite — the registry would tell firefighters, for example, how many people are at a business or if there are flammable liquids present. But would firefighters be busily checking the database on their way to a fire call? Maybe, but maybe not.

If businesses want to install Knox Boxes — lock boxes that contain emergency information — they can do so, and at least 300 already have. And no business license is needed to do this.

Part of the impetus for the business-license plan arose after marijuana businesses started up during the great pot proliferation earlier this year. It seems a rather curious tactic for the city to determine that to ferret out pot shops, you need to inflict a new fee on all the businesses in Kalispell — a number conservatively estimated to be at least 1,400 by the Kalispell fire chief.

And that doesn’t factor in what could be construed as discriminatory pricing for the medical marijuana business licenses. Do they really require that many more city services to justify a higher fee? Or is this just an unwarranted penalty for a business the city doesn’t want?

If public safety is the goal of this proposal, what would be next? What about a residential $10 license so the city knows who is in each house?

Besides, it would appear that the intent of the city to register businesses could be largely met without the costs. Why not just set up a registry online, and encourage all businesses to take a few minutes to answer some simple questions for their own benefit.

The business-license plan has yet to get a formal airing before the City Council. But when it does, we hope our representatives will ask tough questions before proceeding with what appears to be an unnecessary bureaucratic burden on business.