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Finance committee orders research on foregone-revenue options including commercial-vessel tax and nonprofit retail sales
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Summary
Committee directed staff to draft ordinances or return implementation options for several foregone-revenue items — including possible property tax approaches for commercial vessels, adjusting single-sales caps, and revisiting retail-sales exemptions for nonprofits — and asked for implementation costs and timing for items that might affect FY 2028 revenue.
The finance committee reviewed a set of foregone-revenue options and asked staff to return implementation-level information on several items the committee flagged for action or policy discussion.
Assembly member Steininger and Director Flick summarized the committee’s analysis, which grouped proposals into items recommended for action, items needing policy discussion, and two new revenue concepts. Members asked for more data where memo figures were missing, especially on a proposed property tax on commercial vessels and on nonprofit retail exemptions. Director Flick said the city can estimate sales volumes and exemptions but lacks detailed transaction counts for some exemptions without further research; for vessel assessments she suggested objective measures such as vessel length (similar to aircraft weight-based levies).
Members discussed whether nonprofit storefront thrift stores should be required to collect and remit sales tax and whether that would be a small administrative burden; Director Flick said other states’ definitions (for example, Washington) provide useful models distinguishing storefront retail from fundraising events and suggested a biannual review process for small populations of thrift stores.
Mayor Weldon moved to bring ordinances forward for items recommended for action and the committee discussed potential amendments. Assembly member Wall proposed removing retail sales by nonprofits and governments from the ordinance list, but the amendment failed in a roll call (1–7). The committee ultimately directed staff to draft ordinances where appropriate and to return implementation and timing information; officials noted most new taxes or registration requirements would not affect FY 2027 revenue but could be in place for FY 2028.
The committee also asked staff to explore coordination with state business-license entities and to return cost and process estimates for implementing a new commercial-vessel property tax if the assembly wanted to pursue it. Members flagged that operating a new tax would require initial assessment work but staff said once established the assessments could be managed by the city’s tax/assessment group.
The committee asked staff to come back with the legal and operational implications, estimated revenue magnitude where possible, and a recommended schedule if the assembly wanted to proceed with ordinance drafting.
