LEXINGTON, S.C. — In a Monday work session, the Town of Lexington discussed making an amendment to a business ordinance that has been in place for a few years. Although the change is not expected to have an impact the town is hoping that the continuation of this license policy helps with the growth they have been seeing.
The Town of Lexington took steps toward making the necessary change that municipalities across the state will need to make in the next few weeks.
Mayor Steve MacDougall says this amendment is only a formality and will not actually change the ordinance for business licenses.
"The group that manages the new ordinance basically is the municipal association. They decided to change the name of the organization that handles business licenses throughout the state now, and because they changes the name, we then had to change the ordinance to match the new name change," MacDougall stated.
This state-wide business license ordinance has been in place for three years now, and for each of those three years, local business owner Brian Nelson says the process has been easy.
Nelson says he has owned the Keg Cowboy in Downtown Lexington for the last nine years and has paid the same fee every time. However, he believes the state should reconsider the flat fee.
"If you do one flat fee across the board where for me I'm small, I do a minimal amount as opposed to say a Walmart or a Nephron or an Amazon that's coming in. Should I be required to pay more than one of the bigger companies? Or the same? When I do one-hundredth of the business and put a hundredth of the impact on the area," Nelson explained.
The business license ordinance is supposed to level the playing field in terms of the same $50 fee across the board, but it also levels the business development field for all towns and counties across the state as well.
"We all benefit from it because when those around us are doing well, then we all do well," Mayor MacDougall said.
This ordinance amendment will go before the full town council on April 3, at 6:30 p.m. that Monday.