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Massage therapist urges St. Charles to exempt sole proprietors or reduce license fee
Summary
A sole-proprietor massage therapist told the council a $250 annual city license is inequitable for single-therapist operations and urged an exemption or sliding fee; she cited enforcement changes since 2017 and said she will push the issue at future meetings.
Tracy Hylers, a state-licensed sole-proprietor massage therapist, told the City Council that the city's $250 annual license fee is disproportionately high for single-therapist operations and asked the council to consider an exemption or a sliding fee structure that would reduce costs for practitioners who work alone. "I netted $25,000, so paying the city $250 fee was equivalent to paying 1% of my earnings," she said, arguing that the fee is comparable to a month's rent and a heavy burden for low-income sole practitioners.
Hylers described the 2017 code changes that tightened enforcement and made business owners more responsible for employee conduct and said those changes have reduced incidents; she proposed that the city either exempt low-risk sole proprietors or create a small fee and affidavit requirement similar to other nearby cities. Hylers said two council members had previously expressed support for pursuing the issue but there were not yet enough votes to move it forward; she plans to bring an example from Bloomington to the next meeting.
