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By Thomas Moriarty Ashland Daily Tidings December 04. 2014 8:20PM Ashland: Food vendor tax tabled to next meeting Monica Rey of the Rogue Valley Growers & Crafters Market testififies at the Ashland City Council meeting on Tuesday. Image from rvtv.sou.edu Pressed for time, the Ashland City Council on Tuesday night postponed further consideration of how to enforce a food and beverage tax on local street food vendors to its next meeting. Growers market vendors have supposedly been subject to the 5 percent tax since it was adopted by the city in 1993, but vendors haven't collected the tax from customers and paid it to the city for much of the time since. Discussion of the issue drew a number of members of the Rogue Valley Growers and Crafters Market to speak during public comment when the item came up for discussion near the end of the meeting and only minutes before its mandated 10:30 p.m. ending time. The growers market issue came up in the summer after a brick-and-mortar restaurant complained to the city. According to city Administrator David Kanner, the restaurant felt it was unfair that the tax wasn't being paid by street vendors at the Tuesday market on East Main Street. (Sale of prepared foods and beverages subject to the tax are not allowed at a similar market on Saturdays on Oak Street from May through October.) Vendors have maintained that they don't need to pay the tax, because they already have a business license and the market is registered as a nonprofit organization. Kanner says that's a misconception. The markets nonprofit status doesn't exempt its vendors from paying city taxes, which also aren't encompassed by the business license.  "The business license ordinance and the food and beverage tax operate completely independent of each other," he told the council.  Kanner said that since the city approached vendors about paying back taxes, they've yet to see taxes paid. In his staff report for Tuesday's meeting, he offered councilors the option of collecting taxes from the nine vendors subject to the tax back to Sept. 5, the date two of the vendors were notified they owed taxes, or postponing enforcement of the tax until the market reopens in 2015. David French of Griffin Creek Coffee Roasters said Tuesday that forcing vendors to pay the food and beverage tax made little sense, since they were only in operation a few days a week and the city was unlikely to recoup any significant revenue. Jerry Painter, who runs Daddy's Donuts, said the city's orders would essentially force him to pay taxes going back 20 years. "(I'm) the longest food vendor in Southern Oregon at any grower's market," he told the council. "The tax is a shock." Painter said that it seemed fair for the market to be excluded from downtown when the vendors were also excluded from the taxes. "Now, we're being asked to pay the taxes and be excluded (from downtown) — this is clearly unfair," he said. Growers market President Monica Rey said the organization is in the process of altering their policies to comply with the city, but asked that vendors be taxed starting in 2015, saying it seemed unfair to retroactively tax vendors who hadn't known the tax applied to them. Councilor Greg Lemhouse suggested action be postponed to the next meeting. "I'm not comfortable ramming it through in a couple minutes after listening to their thoughtful comments," he said. Kanner said the item would appear in the unfinished business portion of the agenda near the beginning of the council's next regular meeting on Dec. 16. Reach reporter Thomas Moriarty at 541-776-4471, or by email at [email protected]. Follow him at @ThomasDMoriarty. http://www.dailytidings.com/article/20141204/NEWS/141209898 © 2015 Copyright © 1995-2011 Crain Communications Inc. All Rights Reserved. Terms of Use Privacy Statement -->