Business Licenses in Mission Viejo?
by Dale Tyler

At the recent September 21, 2009 City Council meeting, Lance Maclean requested that staff prepare a cost estimate of registering all businesses operating in the City of Mission Viejo. Was this more of the big government, tax and spend approach that is Lance's primary focus?

Some history may be helpful in framing this issue. Mission Viejo, as part of its formation, decided to be as business friendly as possible and place no barriers in the way of starting a business in our city. We do have strict standards for constructing buildings that house businesses, but once a building is properly constructed, the actual business that occupies it can just start operating. We don't currently have any requirement for the business to get a license or any other form of city interference. In fact, Mission Viejo has a competitive advantage over other cities that impose business licenses and taxes.

Although the city government has grown large and expensive, some parts of our small government tradition still remain. Lance MacLean proposes to extinguish this freedom by imposing registration on all businesses in Mission Viejo.

What value could business registration provide to the citizens of Mission Viejo? Literally, there is no value to the people whatsoever. I suppose that some of the bureaucrats in city hall might like the sense of control they would get from knowing where every business is located, what they make or sell, what their sales figures are and how many employees they have, along with innumerable other details. Non of this helps the public nor the business owners themselves. Instead, I suspect this is a means to the next step, business licenses.

Business licenses allow the city to decide who can open and operate a business in the city. They give the city bureaucrats the power to say what kind of stores will be permitted. Too many hardware stores – too bad you can't open your doorknob emporium, too many copy shops – too bad, no fast copy shop for you. Then there will be the endless appeals to the City Council to overturn the denial of licenses and the discussion of what is better for the city, which should be decided by the entrepreneurs who are willing to spend their own money to add to the city's economic life.

Business licenses have become a way for cities to indirectly tax their residents. Once you need a license to operate a business, then there needs to be a fee for that license. After that, its a simple step to a gross receipts tax, a facilities tax and as many other taxes as the city can dream up. All of these would mean higher prices for those who shop at the stores and use the services of local businesses.

Overall, nothing good can come from the city staff sticking their noses into other people's businesses. It would be nice if the big government types would see that the vast majority of the citizens in Mission Viejo don't want more government intrusion into their lives.