by Logan Gruber
operations@thenewsleaders.com
The St. Joseph City Council had planned to raise its annual liquor license fees for on-sale liquor by nearly 30 percent in 2016, but it will now be around a 12-percent increase instead.
The 2015 on-sale fee was set at $2,300. The rate hadn’t been changed since 2002, according to Lori Bartlett, the city’s finance director.
2015 rates in nearby cities were: $3,600 in St. Cloud; $3,000 in Sartell and in Sauk Rapids; and $2,800 in Waite Park. Bartlett said St. Cloud was the only city of these four considering an increase for 2016.
An increase was being considered by the city due to increased staff time to administer the licensing process, inspections, investigations, compliance review/checks and police patrols. A three-year tiered increase was recommended to ease the effect of the increase on license holders.
The proposed rate for St. Joseph in 2016 was $3,000, an approximately 30-percent jump. The goal was to bring the total to $3,400 by 2018.
American Legion Post 328 Commander Chuck Kern was in attendance at the meeting to speak for the Legion of St. Joseph, which sells on-sale liquor. No other on-sale liquor businesses operating in the city were in attendance.
“We just can’t support an increase of 30 percent,” Kern told the council during the open forum. “We are able to give thousands of dollars a year to charities, but that money comes from gambling and we can’t use any of that for business . . . we make very little profit from the bar, and sometimes it’s month-to-month.”
Kern asked if the council could lower the proposed increase to something more reasonable.
After some discussion between council members and questions to Kern, the fee was approved at a rate of $2,600 for 2016 instead of the proposed $3,000. The proposed fee for 2017 shifted to $2,900, and for 2018 to $3,200, though those numbers could shift in discussions in the next two years.
Outside the meeting, Kern said he hadn’t contacted any of the other on-sale liquor business owners.
“We just thought they’d be here . . . it affects them too,” Kern said.
He said the legion can certainly handle a $300 increase rather than a $700 increase, though of course no increase at all would be most in their favor.
“We’re just glad they listened to reason and we were able to influence them,” Kern added.
