A Butler city councilman on Tuesday asked the rest of council to consider changing the mercantile tax abatement program.

The abatement program, started in 2013, allows new businesses to apply for 100 percent abatement for the year in which the business opens, 100 percent for first year after the business opens, and 16.5 percent for the second year after the business opens.

The mercantile tax rate is .001 percent of wholesale sales receipts and .0015 percent of retail sales receipts.

Councilman Jeff Smith suggested council consider changing the program to not assessing the mercantile tax upon any businesses that generate less than $100,000 in revenue.

The tax generated $177,000 in revenue for the city in 2013 and $134,000 last year, Smith said.

He said 139 businesses pay the tax and a third of those businesses wouldn't pay anything under his proposal.

The change might attract more businesses, he said.

Councilman Bob Dandoy said the change would have to be aggressively promoted to bring in more businesses. He suggested that Butler Downtown could be asked to handle the marketing.

Council members said they would like to look into an idea Smith brought up at Monday's meeting of the Butler Parks, Recreation, Grounds and Facilities Authority.

The suggestion was to dissolve the authority and rename it a commission, which would allow more money for expenditures at Michelle Krill Field at Historic Pullman Park and alleviate financial struggles the authority deals with during the offseason.

Smith said the authority and city duplicate about $50,000 in annual expenses for auditing, financial services and legal fees, and that money could be used for capital improvements if the authority was changed to a commission.

However, a commission can't have debt, and the city would have to pay off the authority's $225,000 debt from building the ballpark before it could become a commission, he said.

Authority board members' reaction Monday was “not negative,” Smith said.

Dandoy said he received the same reaction from people, and he wants to be part of the discussion.

Councilman Mike Walter said the idea should be looked into.

A separate proposal will be discussed during the March 26 council meeting.

Smith said landlords will be invited to the meeting to discuss a residential rental property inspection program, which he suggested at the Feb. 4 council meeting.

In unrelated business, new letters asking nonprofit organizations for payments in lieu of taxes will be sent soon.

Mayor Ben Smith said the annual requests will focus on the need for public safety funding even though payments can be designated for a specific purpose.

He said the letter the city has been using is “cold” and a new letter making a more personal appeal will be written.

Council agreed to buy four security cameras for Father Marinaro Park for $11,100 from Secure Technical Solutions.

Council also agreed to advertise for requests for proposals for a $280,000 loan to pay for a storm sewer replacement project on Monroe Street between Cunningham and Jefferson streets.