License maybe, but not a tax

It's hard to argue with the folks who say Douglas County needs a business license, but it's easy to argue against a business license tax.

Douglas County is among a handful of rural Nevada counties which don't have a business license. Under state law, businesses are required to register under the fictitious name and that won't change with the advent of a business license.

The cost of software to implement the license is about $25,000 and maintenance won't exceed a couple of thousand dollars a year, we're told.

Establishing a business license has multiple benefits, including providing law enforcement with an easy means to find business owners in emergencies, providing information to fire services about potential hazards inside a business and legitimizing a business.

Neither the county nor the county's business organizations have any idea how many businesses there are here. We can see some benefit to collecting the demographic information that would accompany implementation of a business license.

That being said, many of the benefits that would be realized by a business license are negated by the fact that the county plans using it to raise revenues.

The trick to collecting information is to encourage people to participate. Generally, that's not done by charging them extra for the privilege of providing information.

We're concerned about language in the ordinance calling the business fee a debt to the county and that it constitutes a lien on real and personal property of the business.

It has long been our contention that county government works for the people, not the other way around. Douglas County has survived 147 years without a business tax. Its county government has soldiered on through the Civil War, the demonetization of silver, the Great Depression, both world wars and nearly three decades of double digit population growth by reducing expenditures where necessary.

Does Douglas County need a business license? Perhaps. Does it need a business license tax? We don't think so.