BLYTHEWOOD – A California-based company may soon be finding new sources of income for the town.
The Blythewood Town Council unanimously approved first reading last week of a proposal from HdL Companies that would contract with the Town to find businesses operating within town limits who are not paying the Town’s business license fees.
In payment, the company would receive 50 percent of the business license revenue generated by the businesses they find, both initially and for two years once they reach compliance.
The proposal will come back before the council for second reading at the next regular meeting – and a representative from HdL Companies is expected to be in attendance to answer questions.
“These services are being used by many municipalities and counties across the state, and this would essentially help our business licensing program stay compliant and ensure that we are getting all business license revenues owed by businesses who operate in the town limits,” said Town Administrator Daniel Stines.
Among the types of businesses that were mentioned as likely to be targeted are after-hours contractors, Airbnb rental establishments, and home-based businesses operating without a license.
The proposal was met with skepticism from Councilwoman Erica Page, who questioned how much value contracting with such a company would really bring to the town.
“How much money are we talking about that we’re not aware of…. I mean, surely there’s some kind of idea of a number?” she said. “What I’m trying to understand is, if we hire them… how much we’re going to be gaining for it.”
Sines said that as a “no-cost, no-obligation relationship,” it’s a “no-lose situation” – and other municipalities in South Carolina speak well of what it’s accomplished for them, noting that non-compliant businesses can be billed for three years retroactively.
“It could be it could be thousands,” he said. “It could be one thousand, it could be tens of thousands.”
Town Clerk Sharon Durst said the company currently performs this service for the City of Columbia and the Town of Winnsboro – and she says her counterpart in Columbia says it has uncovered a lot of revenue that the city had missed.
Councilman Rich McKenrick expressed concern that this method of enforcement could have unintended consequences with the big projects currently underway in town.
“What I don’t want to do is, I don’t want to set up an adversarial relationship out of the gate with contractors coming to Blythewood to work at Scout [Motors],” McKenrick said, noting that he hopes Scout has a process to ensure its contractors know that a town business license is required.
Stines assured council members that part of the process is for HdL to provide town staff with a list of non-compliant businesses it has identified – and only with approval from the town will the company go after them.
This, he said, will give town staff the opportunity to identify any that are already known to the town or entities like Scout or the South Carolina Department of Transportation.
“We view it as sort of a one-year opportunity to see how it goes,” Stines said. “If it’s great, it’s great. If it’s not, then we’ll go back to what we did [before].”