Butler City Council tabled a vote Thursday night to reduce its 7-mill business privilege tax on new businesses, citing a desire to further research the proposal. The proposal would have extended both the length and the amount of the city’s current tax abatement program for new businesses in the city. The proposal, introduced at council’s meeting Tuesday, offered new businesses three years of tax abatement: 100 percent exempted the first year, 75 percent exempted the second year and 50 percent exempted the third year, then full payments thereafter. It would have gone into effect Jan. 1 2013. Currently, new businesses are eligible for two years of tax abatement: 50 percent of tax payments exempted the first year and 25 percent exempted the second year. “We would like to look at some more numbers, particularly to find ways to track the effectiveness and measure the accessibility (of any tax abatement schedule changes),” said Councilwoman Lisa Guard. Thursday’s tabled proposal was a revised version of the plan proposed in May by Butler Downtown’s Economic Restructuring Committee, which sought five years of tax abatement: 100 percent for each of the first three years, then 50 percent tax abatement during the fourth and fifth years. “(The three-year abatement) is not something we would support as an organization,” Butler Main Street Manager Chelynne Curci told council on Thursday. “We hope this can be further discussed throughout October and the five-year plan we initially presented could be considered.”
