Hollister
– Hollister Motorcycle Rally organizers will be working with the
California State Board of Equalization to keep vendor sales tax
revenue from slipping through the city’s fingers.
Hollister – Hollister Motorcycle Rally organizers will be working with the California State Board of Equalization to keep vendor sales tax revenue from slipping through the city’s fingers.
City officials have complained that it has been nearly impossible in previous years to monitor and track sales by rally vendors. Mayor Brad Pike said he hopes the city will see more sales tax money this year than in the past.
“People had seen vendors pocketing cash on Sunday, the last day,” Pike said. “We will look at prosecuting to the full extent of the law if that happens.”
This year, a team of five people will be dedicated to daily checks of vendor sales and a calculation of all sales on the final day of the event, rally promoter Seth Doulton said.
“We’re going to do the best job we can to identify the money that should be coming back to the City of Hollister and San Benito County in the form of sales tax,” he said.
Vendors operating in up to 300 spaces will be asked to give the exact sales numbers they will submit when paying monthly, quarterly or yearly taxes to the state, Doulton said.
When compared to motorcycle rallies in other states, such as the rally in Sturgis, S.D., the revenue generated at the Hollister rally is not large enough to motivate the Board of Equalization to send state agents to help track sales in Hollister, City Manager Clint Quilter said.
“For South Dakota, that’s one of their biggest events of the year,” Quilter said. “On the Fourth of July weekend, I don’t think we’re in the top 20 in the state.”
If vendors are suspected of cooking the books, Doulton said, they could be asked to leave.
In 2005, the last year the city hosted an official rally, the city used a similar system to monitor sales, Quilter said. That year, about $16,000 in sales tax was returned to Hollister, he said.
For many years, the city did almost nothing to track the sales tax revenue generated by vendors, Quilter said. In 2004, the city tried to use register receipts, but power constraints and sales volume made it virtually impossible to sort out, he said.
“That didn’t work because we ended up with a garbage bag of receipts,” Quilter said.
Michael Van Cassell covers public safety for the Free Lance. He can be reached at 831-637-5566 ext. 335 or [email protected].
