Council to consider hike in fees for businesses serving liquor

Merchants likely to voice objections at meeting tonight.

By: David Campbell
   The Princeton Borough Council is expected to consider an ordinance for introduction tonight that would increase annual licensing fees for liquor stores, bars and restaurants that serve alcoholic beverages in the borough’s central business district.
   Under the proposed ordinance, the annual fee charged to downtown merchants holding a plenary retail consumption license — which covers bars and restaurants that serve alcohol — would rise from $2,000 to $2,400 this year and to $2,500 in 2006. The ordinance would fix the same increase in the annual fee to holders of a plenary retail distribution license, which covers liquor stores.
   Borough Administrator Robert W. Bruschi said state regulations have been amended to give municipalities the ability to charge more for existing licenses, and he said the proposed increase in fees would be the maximum permitted under the law.
   Mr. Bruschi said the ordinance is unlikely to prove controversial with members of the governing body, which is grappling with ways to defray the property-tax burden on residents. But the administrator said some merchants could have concerns about the proposed annual fee increase.
   Mark Bovenizer, co-owner of Community Liquors on Witherspoon Street, is one such merchant. He said he holds two liquor licenses — one of which he said is currently inactive — and indicated the fee hike the council will consider tonight places an unfair burden on downtown merchants.
   "Find the money somewhere else," Mr. Bovenizer said Monday. "Don’t keep hammering the small-business people."
   Mr. Bovenizer said he may turn out to tonight’s Borough Council meeting to voice his concerns. He said the increase being contemplated for this year would constitute a 20-percent hike for merchants like himself, and he said the 2005 rate would constitute a total increase of roughly 24 percent.
   By contrast, he continued, the amount of new revenue it would bring in would result in modest tax relief at best.
   "It’s an insignificant amount of dollars that hurts only a few in town," he said.
   Mr. Bovenizer said the fee increase, if it is approved, could cost one of his part-time staff his job. He added that he would consider running for a seat on the council — he would have to change his place of residence to do so — in order to represent the concerns of local business owners.
   Councilman David Goldfarb said that, in most cases, the actual value of the liquor licenses has increased much more than the fee. He said the increase contemplated under the proposed ordinance is "easy to justify" because, he said, the borough incurs costs from such things as police enforcement of state liquor laws and record keeping at Borough Hall. And the additional revenue would help lessen the tax burden on residents, he said.
   "Raising the fees is appropriate," Mr. Goldfarb said.
   In other business tonight, the Borough Council is expected to consider introduction of an ordinance that would appropriate $1.73 million for roadwork and related improvements to sanitary sewers and drainage. The subject areas would be Washington Road, Patton Avenue, Moran Avenue and Hibben Road.
   The council also is expected to consider introducing an ordinance that would appropriate $481,000 and authorize a special assessment on affected residents for sidewalk replacement and improvements in those locations. Under the current cost-sharing formula, the borough and residents evenly split the costs for sidewalks.
   The council also is expected to vote on resolutions that would authorize the borough to seek a total of $300,000 in funding from the state Department of Transportation for reconstruction of Wilson Road from Wescott Road to the borough line and of Cleveland Lane from Bayard Lane to Library Place. The borough would contribute $180,925 toward the Wilson Road project, and $226,881 toward the one on Cleveland Lane.