Small Business Owners Set to Protest 'Add-on Tax' at City Hall

A group of small business owners are coalescing to demonstrate outside of City Hall Saturday morning to protest a proposed business tax that would help pay for improving the area’s transportation infrastructure.

After the protest, which will be held around 9 a.m. the group plans to attend the 9:30 a.m. City Council meeting where the tax will be debated.

“Businesses are facing flat revenues and yet rents are continually going up and now the city wants to add a tax. It’s not sustainable,” said Kim Putens, co-owner of Old Town’s and . A lot of businesses are starting to say 'I’m leaving. I’m done.'”

Putens said “everyone should share the burden” of paying for infrastructure improvements.

“I have sat back and watched Alexandria grow over 17 years, adding housing units left and right…with no effort to think strategically how that’s going to affect transportation,” said Putens, who is co-founder of the Old Town Boutique District initiative.

Maria Wasowski of A Show of Hands in Del Ray said she would not attend the rally but believes residents and businesses should share the cost of transit projects.

To ameliorate the looming tax burden, the city has proposed reducing business license taxes for the smaller of the small businesses, but both Putens and Jody Manor, owner of Bittersweet Café and Catering, questioned whether the city wouldn’t just reinstate those fees at a later time.

Putens said she has large, commercial property owners courting her to come to Arlington and Fairfax, where she lives, and has been considering a move because these owners are “making deals left and right.” She added that business owners are getting free rent at National Harbor as that area tries to build up its retail business.

“The city thinks small businesses in the city aren’t organized and we’re not going to hear from them so we’ll just pass it through, but we are organized and we’re mad,” she said.

Manor said the commercial add-on tax encourages businesses not to grow.

“I’ve been in business 28 years and when we started we were small, but now we’re 40 people…and I’m way outside the threshold" for being eligible for lower business license taxes,  he said.

He added that it was just three years ago that City Council agreed to raise the meal tax and "it just concerns me that they keep piling on the taxes."

“We will all benefit from transportation improvements, but it's unfair to put the burden solely on businesses,” he said.