Say you made a mistake at work. Say you overcharged customers by $2.6m. and got your company sued because of it. And suppose that lawsuit cost your company — oh, I don’t know but figuring from City Attorney Mac McCarley’s cost of moving a finger to do anything chart — say $500,000 for the company to litigate over the past few months. Then your company settles, admits it was wrong, is on the hook for plaintiffs legal fees too.
Would a pink slip exactly be a surprise? Yes, yes it would if you worked for the city of Charlotte.
Trying to collect business privilege tax on the gross receipts of building contractors was an obvious violation of state law. Contractors are not retailers and state code capped their local privilege liability at $10 a year. Yet here was the city demanding the maximum $10,000 in business privilege tax from contractors. And waited to get sued before admitting the mistake.
Meanwhile, the developer of the aborted condos at EpiCenter still owes over $78,000 in 2008 property tax. The city-favored Bryant Park development owes over $31,000.
The gnomes on city staff were out shaking down the wrong folks. Wonder how that happens? I don’t.
