Council eyes change to occupational tax

Published 6:39 pm Sunday, February 14, 2010

The city of Dalton may give employers who increase their workforce a break on city taxes.

Dalton City Council is scheduled to vote today on a change to the city’s occupational tax. Dalton employers currently pay a flat tax of $100 plus an amount for each worker that decreases as the number of employees rises. The tax is $20 for each worker up to 25, $18 for each additional worker for the next 25 and so on.

The proposed change would allow employers to pay that tax on either their current number of workers or the number they employed the previous year.

The effect, said City Council member Charlie Bethel, is to keep them from paying taxes for one year on any new workers they hire.

Bethel said that, especially given the current economic downturn, council members want to do all they can to encourage local firms to hire new workers.

“We want to send a signal to companies that we are willing to do all that we can to help them grow and to help them expand their workforce,” said Bethel.

Brian Anderson, president of the Dalton-Whitfield Chamber of Commerce, said Dalton is already very competitive with neighboring communities when it comes to taxes but delaying the occupational tax on new employees will make it even more attractive to business.

“It’s not a large tax, but especially in these difficult economic times anything we can do to help business become more stable and to grow helps all of us,” Anderson said.