‘Dc FOOD TRUCK ASSOC. ~*~ mk TR A DC Food Truck Association 1250 Linden Place, NE ‘Washington DC, 20002 March 14, 2011 Re: Pre ‘Vendor Sal is Remittance Act of 2011 ‘Dear Councilmember Evans, We, the newly-formed DC Food Truck Association, are writing to ask you to pause before proposing the ‘Vendor Sales Tax Collection and Remittance Act of 2011. Our association represents 17 food truck businesses, ‘many of which are based in, and all of which operate in, the District of Columbia. The majority of the owners of these businesses are District residents. As a group of small businesses, we serve food to hundreds of District residents and workers each day. As District residents, small business owners, employers, taxpayers and vendors, we obviously are keenly interested in your proposed legislation. ‘The DC Food Truck Association is not opposed to a law that would require all street vendors to collect sales tax. We are however opposed to legislation that is created in a vacuum without all stakeholders at the table. We are also opposed to a bill that does not take a holistic look at street vending but instead takes a piecemeal ‘approach that builds on existing tax and regulatory regimes that all parties agree are antiquated, confusing and not in the best interests of anyone -- street vendors, bricks and mortar bars, restaurants and retailers, the District ‘or consumers, For the reasons set forth below, we ask that you engage with vendors, DCRA and ‘Councilmember Yvette Alexander among others, and take a comprehensive approach to creating vending regulations that work for all stakeholders. Vendors should be engaged on issues that affect us directly before any legislation is proposed. To our knowledge, you did not solicit the views of any food truck owner/operator regarding this proposed legislation that would govern the collection of sales taxes by food trucks and other vendors. One reason we are asking you to postpone this legislation is so that you can engage the food truck community in any legislative or other changes you are considering that impact our businesses. As an important and growing small business community within the city, and as contributors to the economic and cultural vitality of the city, we respectfully request a seat at the table to collaborate on legislation that impacts us directly. ‘The absence of that dialogue leaves us to believe that this legislation was unduly influenced by only one side of the conversation and that it lacks the context necessary to ensure that it fits within an overall view of what street vending in the District can and should look like. Changes to vending regulations need to be holistic, Piecemeal changes create even more chaos. We believe that your proposal to have all city vendors begin collecting sales tax from customers has merit as a fair and equitable means by which to increase revenue for the city. All legitimate businesses collect and remit sales tax and we would like to see the city begin to recognize that all vendors, no matter the size, type or Tocation of their vending, are legitimate and important businesses in the city. We believe your legislation can be a first step in treating us as such, At the same time, however, we also believe that the tax revenue discussion needs to be considered not in a ‘vacuum but in the larger context of all the revenues that the city receives from the vendor community. The various charges and fees imposed on vendors, and the antiquated rules and regulations on which they are based, ‘must be rationalized in a way that makes sense for the vendors and for the city. For example, if vendors begin collecting and remitting sales tax to the city, the current quarterly payments we make in lieu of taxes would, in faimess, need to be eliminated, but the proposed legislation does not address this issue. In addition, your proposed bill fails to address several other issues:‘© Current vending regulations provide that vending licenses may be issued only to individuals as sole proprietors, not to businesses. And taxes (or more accurately the “payment in lieu of taxes”) are paid by the licensed individuals. Some food trucks, however, require multiple individuals for their operation and these trucks therefore must license multiple employees and make multiple payments in lieu of taxes. This is equivalent to requiring each employee in a restaurant to pay taxes on behalf of the restaurant, We submit that the entity responsible for the payment of the taxes should be the business, not the individual employees comprising the business. As this relates directly to the taxes paid by vendors, any proposed legislation dealing with taxes needs to take the current regulations into account, but your proposed legislation does not do this. © Asstated above, in order to make sense of the taxes that vendors pay, businesses should be licensed, not employees. This would allow street vendors to hire employees the same way that restaurants do ‘without forcing licensed employees to register as sole proprietors with the District when, in fact they are not operating as sole proprietors. Again, this is an important issue that is implicated by your proposed legislation and that must be addressed as part of a comprehensive overhaul of the District’s ‘vending regulations. ‘* Taxing food trucks in the same manner as restaurants and other retail establishments mandates that food trucks be treated like these businesses in other ways as well, subject of course to reasonable and appropriate health and safety regulations unique to our mobile nature, For example, current rules require the existence of a line of customers before stopping at a vending location and to stay at a location after a line has ended. These rules have no parallel in the bricks and mortar world and have no relation to health or safety concerns. In the interest of treating mobile vendors and bricks and mortar establishments more equally, these rules should be abolished. ‘These are only a few of the issues that are implicated by your proposed legislation and that need to be addressed within a comprehensive overhaul of the city’s vending regulations so that together we can create a fair and equitable environment in which all interested parties -- vendors, retail businesses, bars and restaurants, property owners, the city and consumers - can benefit and prosper. We hope this letter makes clear that at moving on your proposed legislation is premature. We would welcome the opportunity to sit down with you and with other stakeholders to further discuss these matters so we can try to move the ball forward in a positive, efficient, and holistic manner that makes the District a model for how, when regulated correctly, vending can be a hugely valuable city resource. Sincerely, ‘The DC-Food Truck Association Kristi Whitfield Executive Director Ce: Councilmember Yvette Alexander, Chairperson, Committee on Public Services and Consumer Affairs ‘Councilmember Muriel Bowser Councilmember Tommy Wells ‘Councilmember Mary Che Nicholas Majett, DCRA Helder Gil, DCRA ‘Samuel Williams, DCRA