Natural State News

A critic of Sen. Ben Gilmore's (R-Bartlett) SB 153 would rather see a proposal that reduces fees for all business owners rather than targeting entrepreneurs who earn less than 200% below the poverty line.

“What will be done to enforce, audit or ensure it is not being abused and why not just waive all first-year fees if we want to promote new businesses and increase employment and phase out most of them over a three-year period?” asked attorney Brenda Vassaur Taylor, owner of the Law Office of Brenda Vassaur Taylor in Fayetteville.

As previously reported in Natural State News, Arkansas state Reps. David Ray (R-Maumelle) and Gilmore (R-Crossett) filed proposals last month to waive initial occupational licensing fees for low-income state residents, which would lift barriers and, in turn, expand opportunity.

“Business owners who hire others usually have long since paid their initial fees to get into a business,” Taylor told Natural State News. “These initial fees are mostly designed to be disbursed costs versus concentrated benefits. No one is fighting hard enough against the initial fee to make a difference. It is the on-going fees that set back business in this state.”

According to the Foundation for Government Accountability, voters want reduced work barriers.

“I applaud these lawmakers for dipping a toe in the water for businesses and the low income,” Taylor said in an interview. “Both are new legislators and have never been in business themselves. They deserve credit for this bill, but why just give new businesses a break without giving us who are supporting the state by hiring workers a break? Let’s start with all of us.”

Although Taylor believes any reduction in money to the government is positive and appears to be supportive of new business owners, she argues that SB 153 doesn’t go far enough.

“I would advise dropping franchise tax after the first year and use a waiver for the first year for those below poverty as they cited,” she said. “I also would recommend looking at the income levels of occupations and for those occupations making less than a specific amount, such as $75,000 per year, waive all for the first three years, then start a fee schedule for adding fees if the state hates business enough to keep them heavily regulated and fined.”

Taylor added that it’s not the initial fee that harms new businesses.

“It’s likely those annual continuous fees that are the most expensive," she said.