Voice of the People: Measure C

There are hundreds of businesses that are doing business and have done business in our city daily that never did have a business license or even have one now. At times the city has even helped promote them. It appears that most of the people that we have been paying for all of these years did not and still are not doing a very good job of checking on them or enforcing on them. Also most of these people have been allowed to stay in business and have never paid a dime even after it was brought to the attention of past and present city staff and officials many times over the past few years who promised to do something about. It has just been getting worse every year. Some people do feel that a business is not completely legal unless they have a business license and it also helps maintain the city with the revenue from it. It is unbelievable that a well-known attorney that has been doing business in our city for years still does not have the business license that he has always been required to have, and according to code enforcement he is absolutely not exempt at the location he is at now as of Oct. 24, 2013. It was brought to the attention of city staff and officials several years ago when he was doing business in a another location in Grand Terrace which was right next to another attorney who gets his required business license every year. He even advertised in the “Blue Mountain Outlook” this month. This is one of many that have not been paying their fair share in this city on this and many other major things which results in lost revenue. Taxing residents and businesses more who are already struggling to make ends meet is absolutely absurd even if it is not a problem for them later on. No one should have to pay for all of the people who did not pay in the past or present and there are other ways to get the revenue we need for this city without using scare tactics!