Business owners

in Coweta County will pay bigger fees for business licenses after action

Commissioners

voted to up the fees by nearly 50 percent in all three business classes

and remove the maximum cap that a business can pay.

Business License

Director Eva Wagner told the commissioners that fees had not been raised

since the early 1990s. When she started doing a comparison of other counties,

she realized Coweta's fees were extremely low.

The current

fee is 25 cents per $1,000 in gross receipts for businesses in group one;

30 cents per $1,000 in group two and 35 cents per $1,000 in group three.

The approved

fees would raise the rate to 50 cents in group one, 62.5 cents in group

two and 75 cents in group three.

The administrative

fee rises to $35 from $25 and the maximum cap on a business license is

eliminated. The cap was at $3,000.

Wagner said

the increase in fees would still keep the county in the lower rung of

counties for business fees.

Commissioner

Jim McGuffey supported raising the fees, but postponed the vote until

the afternoon when Wagner could give him more information about how she

chose to raise the figures.

"This

is a tax, and you're doubling people's taxes. I just want more information,"

he said.

Wagner said

he tried to keep the figures similar to what other counties had and went

with an average figure.