Resident urges Paducah to replace gross-receipts business tax with net-profit model

Marshall Davis, who described himself as a lifelong Paducah resident, used the public-comment period to urge the commission to reconsider the city's business license tax. Davis argued that taxing gross sales rather than net profit forces small businesses into survival mode and skews benefits toward large corporations. “By taxing those who can least afford it, you rob small businesses of the resources needed to reinvest,” Davis said, urging the commission to “shift from a gross receipts tax to a net profit tax” and to make rates equitable.

Davis offered a numerical example he described as illustrating the inequity: a small business could pay roughly $35,000 annually while a larger neighbor paying double in sales would pay only about $35,500 under the full implementation of the policy. He called the current structure “grotesque” and asked commissioners to align votes with stated values in support of downtown entrepreneurs. The commission did not take immediate action on the tax during the meeting; Davis's remarks were recorded for follow-up.