front page - search - community 

Evans: Repeal MBL

Council majority backs proposal to kill controversial master business license

(Published March 10, 2003)

By LaSHELL STRATTON

Staff Writer

A majority of the D.C. City Council is backing a bill introduced March 4 by Ward 2 Councilman Jack Evans that would repeal the city’s controversial master business license law.

The law requires all businesses that make more than $2,000 annually – including many that previously were unlicensed – to get a master license, but problems with implementing the law have caused the council to twice delay its enforcement. The current deadline for complying with the law is June 1.

Evans, who along with many of his council colleagues had sought to correct the problems by amending the law, called implementation of the new licensing program "a nightmare." He said he concluded that the council should reinstate the old law and "start anew."

"My office, and I’m sure the offices of my ward colleagues, has been bombarded with calls, letters and e-mails from residents who were unsuccessfully attempting to comply with our new law," Evans said. "Unfortunately, I have heard from too many people with too many different complaints and right now I do not have confidence this program can be saved."

An aide to Evans, who chairs the council’s Committee on Finance and Revenue, said the councilman anticipates that reinstatement of the old licensing law would require the city to refund fees paid by some businesses that were not required to get a license under the old law, but had already complied with the new master business license law.

Seven members of the 13-member city council immediately signed on as co-sponsors of Evans’ bill: Ward 1’s Jim Graham, Ward 4’s Adrian Fenty, Ward 5’s Vincent Orange, Ward 7’s Kevin Chavous, Ward 8’s Sandra Allen, and at-large council members Carol Schwartz and David Catania.

The push for the law’s repeal stems largely from heavy criticism leveled by home-based businesses, attorneys, nonprofit organizations, journalists, churches and other businesses that would be required to get a license for the first time.

Prior to the Omnibus Regulatory Reform Amendment Act of 1998, which included creation of the master business license program, the law that regulated the licensing of D.C. businesses dated back to 1908. Between 1908 and 1997, several bills that called for changes in business license regulations in the District went before the D.C. council but never passed. The old system included 123 different licenses and required some businesses, such as grocery stores, to get several of them.

"For example, if you’re a grocery store, you might have 15 different activities," said Edward Grandis, who served as a member of a commission created in 1995 by former mayor Marion Barry, at the behest of the now-defunct financial control board, that recommended the streamlining of D.C. business licenses.

"Every time the store would have to get a new license for each activity," Grandis continued. "There would be several renewal dates for one year – so for a grocery store that adds up to renewing 15 times a year. There would be several different license displays. You would go inside the grocery store office and see the wall and it would literally look like a wallpaper of licenses."

So to curtail the hassle for businesses, Grandis said the commission’s licensing subcommittee suggested a program modeled after a successful registration system in the state of Washington. The program would consolidate all the licenses given to a single business under one unique business-identifying number and require renewal every two years.

During the summer of 1998, the business regulatory commission recommended the licensing changes to the control board. Grandis said the recommendation was approved with a few important revisions: nonprofit organizations were brought under the business licensing requirement and the revenue threshold for businesses required to obtain licenses was set at $2,000.

"The low, $2,000 threshold has forced PTAs, babysitters and Girl Scout troops to register," Evans said. "Clearly, this was not the intent of the legislation. This is just one small example that demonstrates that many problems must be addressed."

Grandis, who serves as executive director of the Dupont Circle Merchants and Professionals Association, said he agrees with Evans on that point but does not think addressing the problems requires repeal of the entire 1998 business license program.

Grandis is now a member of the Master Business Licensing Registration Task Force, headed by council members Harold Brazil and Sharon Ambrose, and has recommended that the city require a master license only for those businesses that were required to get a license under the old law. The task force of government officials and business professionals is attempting to revise the master business license law.

The city council’s Committee on Consumer and Regulatory Affairs, which Ward 6’s Ambrose chairs, will determine whether Evans’ Master Business License Repeal Act of 2003 will make it to the full council for a vote. At press time, the bill had not yet been scheduled for a hearing.

Copyright 2003, The Common Denominator