The city of Burlington will consider eliminating a tax on business owners that generates $1.2 million annually.
Dan Ukolowicz, who owns Simple Roots Brewing with his wife, Kara Pawlusiak, wrote a letter asking the city council and Mayor Miro Weinberger to rescind the tax because it unfairly burdens his company.
Ukolowicz, who started Simple Roots in his garage in 2014, said he pays $1,800 a year as part of the tax on his brewing equipment. The company has four part-time employees and operates out of the Ethan Allen shopping center in Burlington’s New North End.
About 750 Burlington businesses pay the business personal property tax on assets such as equipment, according to the city website.
The Burlington City Council voted unanimously Monday to ask Mayor Miro Weinberger to examine the impact of eliminating the tariff. The resolution did not offer any suggestions for how the city could make up for the lost income.
Instead, it asks that the Weinberger administration report to the council by April on “the financial impact of eliminating the business personal property tax to the City and the impacted businesses.”
Eliminating the tax would require approval by Burlington voters and the Vermont legislature, according to Weinberger. The earliest the city could make the change would be in 2019.
The tax can dissuade businesses from expanding or relocating to Burlington, said Kelly Devine, executive director of the Burlington Business Association. The tax “definitely is a disincentive to grow here and come here,” and can be particularly burdensome for manufacturing companies that have lots of equipment, she said.
Justin Worthley, vice president of human resources at Burton Snowboards,
said he was “psyched” that the council would take up the issue. He called the tax “a relic.”
“Very few municipalities in Vermont have a tax like this,” he said. “It seems like it’s time for it to go away.”
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Interesting. And what other taxes are going to go up to make up for the shortfall created by elimination of this tax? Its interesting to hear how business owners feel like they should be able to operate tax free while the rest of us poor slobs have to pay tax on almost every aspect of our lives.
@Roy
Interesting. And what other taxes are going to go up to make up for the shortfall created by elimination of this tax? Its interesting to hear how business owners feel like they should be able to operate tax free while the rest of us poor slobs have to pay tax on almost every aspect of our lives.
I do not operate my business tax free. I pay the same taxes as you with the addition of the business personal property tax.
Time to get a clue Roy!
no one forces anyone to locate their business in Burlington, nor to take advantage of the dense population of potential customers, found there.
If Burlington needs more affordable housing, how does using real estate for businesses, help that goal?
Such insight from the Burton spokesperson…
The recent Republican tax cuts included a tax benefit to brewers – roughly in the neighborhood of what Ukolowicz describes as needing to pay locally (for small-time brewers). Meaning if he succeeds in eliminating this local tax, he will have realized a windfall of $3,000-$5,000 this year alone at the expense of wage-earning taxpayers.
Yet Burlington’s schools herd 22 six-year-olds into each Kindergarten classroom while people protest that the student teacher ratio is not high enough.
I hope the Council puts this idea on ice.
But Tiki, he is a job creator. He has created 4 crappy part time, no benefit jobs. He probably wasn’t smart enough to make them “internships.” He is providing another valuable service because if there is one thing Vermont needs it’s another snowflake who makes awesome beer in his garage turned brewery business because there aren’t enough dime store beer operations for consumers to have a choice.
Meanwhile, 65-100 people are out of a job, losing on average let’s say, $18,000 per year. That’s now $1.8 MILLION taken out of the local economy. Sixty five to one hundred FAMILIES now scrambling to figure out how they will pay rent, groceries and more.
If you were employed at Macy’s and didn’t see the writing on the wall then shame on you. They have been closing doors across the country. Like it or not the classic department store that has not found a niche market is going by the wayside. Yes losing these jobs is hard but it was on the horizon with or without the purchase of the building.