Working together on BPT reform

Two weeks after proposed business-privilege tax reform legislation was the focus of a divisive City Council public meeting, sponsors Bill Green and Maria Quinones Sanchez said Wednesday they’d be working with the Mayor’s office to find common ground.

The bill was touted as one that would help small businesses. Opponents, including the mayor’s office, countered that it would cost the city dollars and jobs. It aimed to eliminate the net income tax while increasing the gross receipts tax .5 percent; the city also wouldn’t charge that gross receipts tax in the first $100,000 of receipts a business earns.

“If alternatives get us to a similar place of achieving the reforms we’ve put forward, we’ll work together with the administration to implement those,” Green said Thursday.