What Happened?
The city of Peoria, Illinois, is looking to consolidate licensing services with its eponymous county in an effort to eliminate costs and prevent duplication of efforts.
Justification
The consolidation of licensing is really about reducing administrative burdens for businesses. For example, restaurants typically pay two licensing fees: a $300 annual food-safety license to the county, and another license to the city of Peoria. The county conducts the twice-year inspections of the city’s restaurants. Peoria City Manager Patrick Urich told a local paper that he’d like to “work with the [county] health department so we can end up with a savings to those restaurants so they don’t have to pay for the two licenses.”
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Added Benefits
In addition to eliminating duplicated efforts and fees, the consolidation could provide an enforcement benefit. Currently, there are no ramifications should a Peoria restaurant fail to pay its 2 percent restaurant tax. The streamlined process could yield greater coordination, enabling the county health department to potentially withhold a business’s license if the tax was unpaid.
More Resources
According to town officials, the consolidation effort is modeled on the Champaign Urbana Public Health District, which has a streamlined “uniform regulation of licenses.” A related study was conducted on the matter, titled “Reformation for the Future.”
A presentation on shared services in Princetown (NJ) Township provides some interesting food for thought on regional consolidation, as does this consolidation roadmap, published by the New Jersey State League of Municipalities.
The state of California also recommended consolidation of licensing and certification functions, providing a list of potential efficiencies and fiscal impact data. Texas also proposed consolidating some of the licensing delivered by seven boards of licensing. Georgia’s secretary of state recently withdrew a proposal to streamline licensing.
The original article on Peoria is available.