Nathan Prewett
CLAY, Ala. — The first reading was held for an ordinance to issue refunds to rental real estate business license taxpayers after it was found that they have been overpaying, according to Mayor Jane Anderton at a meeting of the Clay City Council on Tuesday night.
During the pre-council meeting Anderton cited Ordinance 2022-05 that determined a business license tax on the rental of residential real estate on a per unit basis. Section 11-59-90.3 of the Code of Alabama 1975 prohibits this unless the tax was established before Jan. 24, 2014.
She stated that Clay’s proposed Ordinance 26-08-01 would repeal and amend the 2022-05 policy. She further added that the council needs to establish one base license fee per taxpayer regardless of the number of rental properties or rental units owned and operated by Clay’s taxpayers.
“That’s not the painful part,” she said. “The painful part is that these property owners have been overpaying their business license fees and we now owe them all refunds.”
The refunds are in the amount of $213,000. Anderton advocated that the council suspend the rules and move forward as soon as possible so that the city will be in compliance with state law.
“Thankfully that was brought to our attention before there were any legal issues,” she said. “So, we’re going to just take that and go forward with it.”
Later in the regular meeting unanimous consent was proposed to approve the ordinance. Councilor Nathan Thompson said that he could not vote in favor of it without seeing the original ordinance first. As it required unanimous consent the ordinance had to remain as a first reading.
The matter will be revisited at a future meeting.
Additionally, the council later authorized $40,000 to each of the four schools of Clay, as well as an administrative supplement not to exceed $80,727.
Center Point Fire Chief Brandon Dahlen gave a report for the month of July, saying that there were 958 calls. Six were structure fires. 496 were emergency medical calls, 386 of which were emergency transports.
Meetings take place every second and fourth Tuesday at Clay City Hall located at 2441 Old Springville Road. Pre-council begins at 6 p.m. followed by the regular meeting at 6:30 p.m. Meetings are recorded for the city’s YouTube channel.
Nathan Prewett can be reached at nthomasp6@gmail.com.
