The city that never sleeps is apparently having a nightmare. Not only is New York considered to be the Bed bug capital of the world but it seems they are vying for the highest business fees and tax Mecca as well. With record budget deficits Governor Patterson Democrat, is looking anywhere he can to increase revenue for his beleaguered state.
Cigarette vending machines now have a $1000.00 tax for the privilege of taking up a 2 foot by 4 foot square.
A $50.00 cell phone bill now comes with 13 different tax add on’s that total over $13.00, regular sodas are taxed now while the diet drinks have no such tariff. Beer and wine weren’t so lucky regardless if they are considered low carb or not and even the ultra wealthy are looking to claim their home anywhere else but New York. Not to mention the high cost for average citizens and businesses already.
All of these facts came up with 97,900,000 others in 0.26 seconds when you Google taxes in New York. In that entire search not one story could be found about the increased annual fees for your local pest control operator who calls the big apple home. While the other taxes New York has raised are ridiculous and seem unfair none have doubled the cost of legally operating like the license fees for operating a pest control business. Fees to register or renew a pest control license in New York went from $350.00 to now $900.00 per year and just because the government calls them fees rather than a tax there is really no difference. It’s just a game of semantics to keep the unwashed masses from becoming too unruly of the unfair pillaging of our money that we earn.
Normally we all accept that prices go up, bread, gas, rent and even the price of pest control all incrementally increase over time. However when they spike out of control and we are helpless to do anything about it then it’s time to hold our decision makers feet to the fire. It wasn’t that long ago when gas hit $4.00 per gallon and more than one political leader heard the loud voice of the American people.
If the New York rates were raised in line with the rest of the country then maybe I’d say fine, we all are in this together. But I did some checking using Local links for pest control help and the results were shocking.
Compare these license renewal rates;
Wisconsin is $108.00 per year per location.
Arizona is 75.00 per year
Florida just recently hiked their business license fee to a whopping $250.00
And the king of high costs California is $160.00 for new license and $320.00 annual renewal. I guess they felt bad charging so much in your first year so Arnold said “I’ll be back.”
Which brings us to New York who just went from a manageable $350.00 to $900.00. They even put a nice reminder at the bottom of the page in bold type so you don’t forget to put your check in the envelope.
For the bigger companies this may be no big deal but for the so called life blood of America, the job creators otherwise known as the small ‘mom and pop’ operations this is a heavy burden.
That’s really not the end of it for these entrepreneurs in one of the nation’s most challenging regions 
for pest control. They also raised personal licenses for commercial applicators (3 year) from $225.00 to $450.00. I don’t do pest control in this state so I’m sure I don’t have the full story. Just as I’m sure in the other states cited there may be an additional fee for such things as ID cards or special categories but nothing I’ve seen comes close to the extortion like assessments that are being levied against New York’s pest control companies.
In the end it really isn’t the pest control companies that will pay these fees, just like every other tax or product any business has to pay for the price is eventually built into the cost of service that the consumer pays. The problem with that theory is most companies will hold off increasing their price as long as they can and when they can no longer shoulder the burden their increased rates will drive already squeezed customers off their books and then everybody loses.
Well they say New Yorkers are tough so I’m sure we’ll see most of them make it through this just as they have many other difficult challenges. If not they may just be packing it in for the lower fees of other states and for sure, in those places, they’ll do just fine. Like the song says,
“If I can.. make it there, than I can.. Make it anywhere it’s up to you… New York, New York”
