ORANGE BEACH, AL – Maybe higher fees and a new liquor tax on restaurants and bars aren’t the way to fund Orange Beach’s clean beach initiative.

On Oct. 18 the city council seemed to back away from a proposal amending an Orange Beach ordinance to increase business fees and add a liquor tax on restaurants to raise $400,000 for the Leave Only Footprints program.

“The more I think about it’s just the cost of doing business of doing business to preserve the beach and the City of Orange Beach,” Mayor Tony Kennon said. “We just need to deal with that through the general tax structure.”

The proposal was floated on Oct. 4 during a work session about amending a city ordinance to raise business license fees to bring them closer to fees charged in neighboring Gulf Shores and Foley.

Not discussed in that session but also proposed in the amendment was a new 6 percent tax on all liquor bought by the city’s restaurants and bars. Gulf Shores already levies such a tax.

Business owners, particularly those running restaurants and bars, were paying attention and questioned why the city would raise fees and add a tax on them when this year’s budget contains a $7 million surplus and $40 million in the bank.

“If a tax increase is necessary to fund Leave Only Footprints, the restaurant industry should not be singled out to pay a disproportionate share of the tax,” Tacky Jacks Chief Financial Officer Ken Kichler said after the Oct. 4 meeting.

Business and restaurant owners packed council chambers on Oct. 18 and waited patiently through 90 minutes of discussion on other agenda items before the ordinance was brought up.

In the end, three of the four present council members said they were against raising the fees. Only councilman Jeff Boyd was openly against it after the Oct. 4 work session discussion.

“I said two weeks ago I was against the increase and I’m still against it,” Boyd said.

The other five members didn’t not express a stance at that time.

“We’ve had a great year, a banner year thanks to our employees and you business owners out there,” Councilman Jeff Silvers said. “I’m not in favor of supporting an increase in business licenses or liquor tax at this time.”

Given the absence of council members Joni Blalock and Jerry Johnson, Kennon said further discussion would be delayed on such an important topic.

“If we’re going to have any kind of fee increase or taxes I feel like we need to have everybody here,” Kennon said. “We got a whole roomful of folks. I just want to say personally say I don’t support anything this year on at new tax or business license fee.

“In this environment of surpluses I think everybody pretty much in agreement.”

Councilwoman Annette Mitchell didn’t say how she intended to vote if the issue came up. She is a member of the Finance Committee where the proposal originated per the council’s request, Mitchell said.

“We would not have proposed the increase had we not been looking for ways to add that to pay for Leave Only Footprints,” Mitchell said. “It was a specific charge when the Leave Only Footprints project was approved. We were asked to come up with ways to generate new revenue.”

Tacky Jacks’ Kichler said after the Oct. 18 meeting he liked what he heard from council members.

“We are thankful the city leaders listened to the business community and trust they will be able to find ways to reduce the cost of the program and/or find a source of funding with more appropriate casuality,” he said.

Orange Beach spent $1.3 million implementing Leave Only Footprints in 2016 and is hoping some changes in the program will bring it below $1 million this year.

In December of 2015 the city waived a 10 percent discount businesses received for paying sales taxes on time and it raised about $500,000 earmarked for the beach program.

Gulf Shores spent about $900,000 for its clean beach initiative this year and officials say it is budgeted for less than $700,000 for 2017. It is funded from lodging tax revenues earmarked annually for beach improvements.