SUNBURY — The City Council voted Monday to place a 90-day moratorium on a $100 licensing fee some nurses say is “grossly unfair.”
Barbara Hoffman, along with Virginia Mendler, of Shamokin Dam, and Billie Jo Houtz, of Middleburg, confronted the council on tax bills they received May 7 that ordered them to pay a $100 professional licensing fee to the city by June 12. That deadline has now been extended to Sept. 12.
Also charged with the fee are between 250 and 350 insurance agents, lawyers, architects, engineers, doctors, dentists, psychiatrists, psychologists, investment advisers and stock brokers.
The women objected to the fee on the grounds that it is not income-based, and because they say the tax bills were not distributed to all licensed professionals in the city.
“If you’re going to bill some a license fee, it should be anyone who has a professional license,” Houtz said.
Councilman John K. Shipman said letters were sent to city businesses in March asking them to produce a list of all the licensed professionals they employ. Shipman said some replied, some did not, and some replied but with incomplete lists.
Exempted from the tax are beauticians and barbers, Shipman said — on the grounds that they do not classify as professionals, certified public accountants who work only for a company and but do not provide services to the public, and nurses aides.
Hoffman, of Sunbury, also complained that she already pays an occupational assessment tax, as well as a $52 emergency services tax. According to city treasurer Beth Kremer, Hoffman, as a nurse, would pay a total of $527.50 to the city, county and school district in occupational assessment tax. To tack a third tax on top of what Hoffman already pays, the registered nurse said, is unfair.
“The nurses who work at Sunbury hospital are not the highest-paid nurses by any means,” she said.
Said Houtz: “I have my own bills and my own family. To pay more tax because of my profession is not fair.”
The professional licensing fee was originally proposed by city financial consultant Robert Sabatini in 2007. It was approved by the council at the end of that year, but the fee wasn’t enforced until this year.
Shipman said the fee was adopted by the council to raise tax revenue without raising property taxes.
“We’re trying to be fair here. We’re not trying to be punitive about this at all,” Shipman said. “Retail businesses pay mercantile tax; restaurants pay a fee; parking lots pay a fee. Professionals don’t pay any fees.”
Shipman proposed Monday implementing a fee schedule that would exempt those making less than $5,000 a year and require those making between $5,001 and $12,000 to pay 50 percent of the tax, and those making more than $12,000 a year to pay the full $100 fee. “It will be collected,” Shipman said. “The city needs that revenue to close the budget gap.”
The city budgeted about $25,000 in revenue from the fee, Shipman said, and to date has received about $11,000.
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City postpones $100 licensing fee collection
Nurses call tax unfair
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